Two Romanian nationals have been jailed for stealing more than $75,000 from New Zealanders using card skimming equipment.
Deep insert card skimming devices seized by Customs. Photo: Supplied / NZ Customs
Ionut Alexandru Oprescu and Victor Ionut Ghenadi were sentenced today in Auckland District Court for importing and possessing card skimming equipment.
The equipment was used to obtain credit card details of more than 100 New Zealanders and steal about $75,300 from many of them.
Both men were convicted for multiple charges, including importing devices for a dishonest purpose.
Oprescu was jailed for 2 years and 5 months while Ghenadi was jailed for three years.
The pair arrived in Auckland from Dubai in November 2019, and are believed to have ties with international criminal syndicates, police said.
An investigation into Oprescu and Ghenadi was launched by Customs following a tip-off from a courier driver regarding two packages sent from London.
The packages were declared as a "musical box" and "laptop without hard disk", but contained card-skimming devices.
The two men were identified and their place of residence was searched in January 2020.
Oprescu was caught trying to hide items in the roof cavity when Customs and police officers raided the men's rented Hobson street apartment. A large number of parts, tools and equipment used to make card skimming devices, a completed and functional skimming device, blank cards, and a card writer machine were also found.
Numerous cards were found hidden inside Ghenadi's pillows - such as 'Bonfire', Smiggle', 'JB Hi-Fi' and Countdown / AA Smartfuel cards - which were loaded with stolen financial information linked to victims' credit cards.
Ghenadi was caught at a local restaurant with a loaded 'Farmers' card in his wallet, and a search of his rented car found the moulding clay used to assemble the skimming devices.
Videos of people entering their pin codes on ATMs were found on a USB drive attached to a pinhole camera.
Card skimming equipment found hidden in an orange sock. Photo: Supplied / NZ Customs
Analysis of their computer recovered 122 bank card numbers, which provided evidence of the $75,380 that was stolen from many victims. In addition, bank deposit slips and chat conversations showed that between mid-December 2019 and mid-January 2020, $43,550 of the $75,380 was cashed and deposited into an account to be converted into cryptocurrency.
Customs Investigations Manager Bruce Berry said card skimming was a global problem.
"Customs works closely with law enforcement and industry partners to prevent exactly this type of illegal behaviour. Quick and collaborative work by Customs and others ensured that many more innocent people did not lose their money," he said.
"The two packages that hid the skimming devices were actually addressed to the homes of innocent occupiers, which is a common method used by criminals for smuggling illegal commodities such as drugs, tobacco and skimming equipment."
Berry gave thanks to the courier driver and company for notifying Customs of the suspicious packages.