Thursday, July 17, 2008

International Fraud Case Has Local Ties - kcra.com - 15 Jul 2008

Women Known As 'Richmond Girls' Arrested


RICHMOND, Calif. -- An international crime ring involving more than a $1 million worth of credit card fraud has ties to the Central Valley, police said.

Police arrested six women from the Bay Area who were allegedly targeting 10 Central Valley stores in a credit card fraud scheme.

Officials of the Sacramento Valley High Tech Crimes Task Force said the group of women, called the "Richmond Girls," are responsible for $1 million in fraudulent credit card transactions in the past six months.

The women allegedly used credit card encoders to recode gift cards that were used at stores like Target and Wal-Mart along Interstate 80 between Roseville and the Bay Area, police said.

Police said they think the women are somehow connected to Ukrainian and Russian identity theft rings, who would e-mail the women credit card account numbers stolen from at least 400 U.S. and foreign citizens, according to investigators.

"We definitely think the ring is bigger than six," said task force spokesman Sean Smith. "I don't want to give too many details since it's an active investigation, but it is a significantly larger number than six people."

The "Richmond Girls" face 180 felony counts, officials said.

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