Bellingham police suspect 2 men used card skimmer to steal from at least 150 victims
Bellingham police have arrested two men from Romania they suspect used card skimmers to fraudulently acquire bank account information from more than 150 people in the area and utilize that data to steal more than $40,000 from victims’ accounts.
The number of victims and the alleged amount of money stolen are expected to increase as the investigation continues, and Bellingham police already have been contacted by law enforcement agencies elsewhere in Washington state, California and New York investigating similar crimes in their areas.
Radu Ioana, 35, and Vlad I. Grama, 33, were booked into Whatcom County Jail on Wednesday, April 22, and are each being held in lieu of $250,000 bail. Iona was arrested on suspicion of first-degree identity theft, first-degree theft and financial fraud, while Grama is suspected of first-degree identity theft, second-degree theft and making false statements to officers.
Both are scheduled to be arraigned May 1 in Whatcom County Superior Court.
Police first began looking into Ioana and Grama on Dec. 18 after getting a series of related identity theft, theft and fraud reports from individuals and banks, according to court documents filed April 23. Among the financial institutions making reports were Industrial Credit Union, West Edge Credit Union and North Coast Credit Union.
Through information provided by the banks and individuals, investigators found the common point of sale for each compromised account was a Chevron station on Iowa Street in Bellingham, documents state.
After investigating bank records, police believe skimming devices were placed at the gas station at the end of November 2019 through mid-December and again in February, according to documents. A skimming device reportedly was located at the station on Feb. 27.
The skimmed information was used to make cloned debit cards, using the magnetic strips on credit, debit or gift cards to encode the stolen information. Those cards could then be used to remove money from victims’ accounts, documents state.
Investigators found compromised account information was fraudulently used at a number of locations, including at grocery stores up and down the Interstate 5 corridor, including in Bellingham, Seatac and Kirkland, and at various ATM locations, according to documents.
Ioana and Grama reportedly used self-checkout lanes at the grocery stores to make purchases and get maximum cash back to steal funds, documents state, or they utilized ATMs to remove cash from accounts.
After receiving transaction histories, police gathered surveillance footage from stores and ATM machines, as well as city surveillance footage in the area, to confirm Ioana and Grama were at the locations at the times of transactions, according to documents. The surveillance footage from ATMs reportedly showed Ioana and Grama spending up to 20 minutes at a time and using multiple cards to make transactions.
Police believe there were more victims then they have been able to identify at this time, court records state, and fraudulent ATM withdrawals were reportedly made by Ioana or Garma on Dec. 20, Dec. 21, Feb. 1, March 6 and March 7.
A Bellingham officer spotted Ioana April 22 near the Lakeway Center and stopped and detained him. Officers also found Grama nearby, court documents state.
Grama gave consent for officers to look in his vehicle, where they found a bundled stack of debit/credit/gift cards and a large amount of cash in the center console, according to documents. Multiple cards with pin numbers handwritten on them also reportedly were found in Ioana’s and Grama’s possession, as well as approximately $1,160 on Ioana.
During an interview, Ioana admitted that the cards had other people’s account information written on the magnetic strips and their pin numbers written on the back, that none of the accounts belonged to him and that he was to take cash out of each account at an ATM, court documents state.
Washington Federal security cameras in the Lakeway Center also showed Ioana conducting multiple transactions with different card numbers before police contacted him, according to documents.
Grama also reportedly provided police with a fake name with a foreign ID card and bank card after he was questioned.
As a result of the investigation, Bellingham police sent out bulletins regionally, statewide and nationally and have since been contacted by a number of law enforcement agencies investigating cases involving skimming devices, credit/debit card fraud and ID theft with suspects matching Ioana’s and Grama’s descriptions who they had not yet been able to identify, documents state.
