April 23, 2007

NEWS: Skimmer Pleads Guilty

Farrell Maharaj, aged 23, pleaded guilty last week to his part in the Rancho Cordova, CA gas station skimmings that made national news recently. It is speculated that over 179 customers were made victims by the scam, which garnered credit card numbers. Maharaj copped to one plea of access device fraud.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Segal, who is prosecuting the case, said that Maharaj was working at a Rancho Cordova gas station that bank investigators had previously suspected was a place where customers’ debit card numbers were being captured for subsequent unauthorized use. Per Segal, Secret Service agents visited the station last summer while Maharaj was operating the cash register, and made transactions using their debit cards. The agents saw Maharaj swipe the cards one time through the cash register’s credit card scanner, and then once, covertly, though his left hand, according to prosecutors.

Per the agents, Maharaj watched them enter their PIN numbers, then entered an unseen amount of numbers into his cell phone. Segal states that Maharaj was then searched, and subsequently arrested. The search found a small hand-held card reader with over 179 debit card numbers recorded upon it.

For possessing a device with over 15 unauthorized access numbers in it, Maharaj faces up to ten years in prison. He will be sentenced in July in Sacramento.


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