Results tagged “atmscam”

Two men were arrested by local feds for an ATM Ponzi scheme that netted them over $80 million dollars by soliciting investments towards cash machines they claimed to own but didn't. While they could face up to 20 years in prison, they can at least look at girls stealing dudes' pin numbers outside nightclubs and in their best Paul Hogan say, "Now that's an ATM scam." [WSJ]

Police have arrested three young women who are accused of scamming up to 50 men that they would lure from nightclubs by offering a ride, only to steal their ATM pins and later rob them. 21-year-olds Tiffany Rasberry and Subhanna Beyah and 22-year-old Barbara Labady were eventually caught after a run-in with an attorney they spotted smoking a cigarette outside the West Village hotspot Lotus on West 14th Street. The "powerhouse lawyer" says, "They drove up in a car with the windows down and said, 'Let's go to a party. Would you like to come with us?' They flirted with him as he took money out at the ATM and then went on to hit up his account half an hour later for $1,600. Another incident scored them $5,000 and they also swiped Blackberries and wallets while having men in the car. The Post refers to the trio as "sexy scammers" and "seductive suspects" and talks to a detective who says they claimed to turn to the scam "as an alternative to turning tricks." According to the Facebook account of Tiffany Rasberry (pictured), she is a 2006 graduate of the Connecticut boarding school Miss Porter's.

You know that ATM scam where four friends from NYU were busted for repeatedly claiming their ATM cards were stolen when they were actually taking in $422,000? Well, the Post reports that it went on for so long (between 2003 and 2008) "because bank officials thought it was easier to just pay up, according to one of the investigators who helped break the case." Former NYPD detective Harry Houck Jr. says that he questioned one of the suspects, John Tluczek, who claimed his ATM card was stolen and account looted—Tluczek's excuse: "I was planning to go on vacation, and I had a piece of paper in my car that had all my PINs written down. I just left it in my car." Houck was suspicious and found out that Tluczek wasn't even on vacation! "But Houck said that when he called other banks to ask them about Tluczek, they had also heard of him, but decided to just pay him off rather than fight. The banks paid because Tluczek and his cohorts were taking advantage of a part of federal banking law that allows people to get money back within 10 days if their ATM cards are stolen and used to make withdrawals." Investigators think Tluczek and his cohorts' haul could tally up to $1 million.