Take the money — leave the Donuts!
Two Romanian men were indicted on charges they reprogrammed Dunkin Donuts gift cards to dispense cash at ATMs, prosecutors said.
Daniel Gheorghe and Ionel Cristian Popa, both 33, allegedly stole $17,703 from a Chase bank in Hollis Queens using their donuts to dollars scheme, authorities said.
The greedy duo, in the United States on journalism visas, is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail on a 70-count indictment, prosecutors said.
Originally worth just a few dozen munchkins, the gift cards were each re-coded with stolen bank account information, providing access to thousands in cash.
They were nabbed March 31st glazing their pockets with wads of $20 bills at the bank’s Hillside Avenue branch, said Queens DA Richard Brown.
Cops were first alerted to the sweet scam by identity-theft investigators from JPMorgan Chase.
Gheorghe and Popa were arrested with the thousands of stolen cash on them along with 66 rechargeable Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards.
None of the 16-digit account numbers displayed on any of the gift cards matched the account numbers encoded on the magnetic strips. They allegedly used sophisticated electronic equipment to program the cards, explained a spokesperson with the DA’s office.
The cards were re-encoded with stolen account information belonging to various banks including Bank of America, Citibank, HSBC, Maestro, Nuvision Federal Credit Unit and US Bank National Association.
They face up to seven years in prison for each of the 66-counts of second degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and additional time for the other four counts.
Two Romanian men were indicted on charges they reprogrammed Dunkin Donuts gift cards to dispense cash at ATMs, prosecutors said.
Daniel Gheorghe and Ionel Cristian Popa, both 33, allegedly stole $17,703 from a Chase bank in Hollis Queens using their donuts to dollars scheme, authorities said.
The greedy duo, in the United States on journalism visas, is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail on a 70-count indictment, prosecutors said.
Originally worth just a few dozen munchkins, the gift cards were each re-coded with stolen bank account information, providing access to thousands in cash.
They were nabbed March 31st glazing their pockets with wads of $20 bills at the bank’s Hillside Avenue branch, said Queens DA Richard Brown.
Cops were first alerted to the sweet scam by identity-theft investigators from JPMorgan Chase.
Gheorghe and Popa were arrested with the thousands of stolen cash on them along with 66 rechargeable Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards.
None of the 16-digit account numbers displayed on any of the gift cards matched the account numbers encoded on the magnetic strips. They allegedly used sophisticated electronic equipment to program the cards, explained a spokesperson with the DA’s office.
The cards were re-encoded with stolen account information belonging to various banks including Bank of America, Citibank, HSBC, Maestro, Nuvision Federal Credit Unit and US Bank National Association.
They face up to seven years in prison for each of the 66-counts of second degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and additional time for the other four counts.
