Four Romanian nationals have been arrested and charged with targeting MTA Long Island Rail Road ticket vending machines in a classic skimming operation that netted the suspects thousands of credit and debit card numbers, along with PIN codes.
The scheme was uncovered after a customer reported damages to one machine. Authorities investigated and ultimately discovered that about 10 of the 278 total machines had been rigged with skimming devices, as well as cameras that would record the PIN codes.
After days of round-the-clock surveillance on compromised machines, MTA police made the bust when the suspects returned to acquire the devices.
The amount of money stolen was not revealed, but one bank reported tens of thousands of dollars in losses from about 50 accounts.
