D.C. Restaurants Become Credit Card Cloning Hot Spots

[Mr Kleen]

Washington D.C. Restaurants Become Credit Card Cloning Hot Spots

Four former servers at three upscale Washington D.C. restaurants blocks from the White House were arrested last week for allegedly using covert skimming devices to clone customer credit card data, in a year-long counterfeiting operation that's put $750,000 in fraudulent charges on the plastic of Washington's elite.

Servers at Clyde's of Gallery Place, M&S Grill, and 701 Restaurant, along with Maryland workers at Carrabba's Italian Grill and the Gaylord Hotel, allegedly stole the card numbers. According to the Secret Service, the data wound up in the hands of 28-year-old Joseph Artemus Bush, III, a Maryland man who was repeatedly caught on surveillance video using counterfeit cards with the skimmed account numbers.

Bush's alleged MO was to purchase American Express gift cards at area Target and Walmart stores, then redeem them at high-end shops like Barney's of New York and Gucci. Last week he was charged with credit card fraud, along with two alleged confederates, Erick V. Burton and Aaron Gilbert. The four servers charged are Lavelle Denise Payne, Shannon Eileen McLaughlin, Jamaal Snowden and Simone Carrie Diane Folk.

Full Article

[sirwilliam]

Another reason not to go into DC...not that I need any more to dissuade me

[Libra Monkee]

That's why I try to use credit cards as little as possible. Especially when I have to give it to someone and they walk away with it.

[Sabre]

Another reason not to go into DC...not that I need any more to dissuade me

Happened in MD too!