{"id":234941,"date":"2025-09-17T23:06:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T23:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/234941\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T23:06:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T23:06:15","slug":"three-men-sentenced-in-177k-atm-skimming-scheme-spanning-chicago-new-jersey-prosecutors-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/234941\/","title":{"rendered":"Three men sentenced in $177K ATM skimming scheme spanning Chicago, New Jersey, prosecutors say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\"><strong>CHICAGO<\/strong> &#8211; Three men have been sentenced to federal prison for an ATM card-skimming scam in Chicago and New Jersey.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WFLD\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Florin Nicole Tarta, 40, of Romania; Leonid Grigore Smetanca, 45, of Romania; and Radu Farcas, 42, of England, installed card-skimming devices on multiple Bank of America ATMs, according to the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office. The devices were used to steal users&#8217; card numbers and account information. Pinhole cameras were also placed near the ATM keyboards to capture users&#8217; PINs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Days later the devices were collected, and the captured data was converted to gift cards. The defendants used the counterfeit gift cards to withdraw cash from various banks, totaling $177,280.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Law enforcement found one of the hidden cameras on an ATM in Westfield, N.J. in March 2024. Tarta was arrested when he returned to the ATM.<\/p>\n<p>FLORIN NICOLAE TARTA  (<strong>U.S&gt; State&#8217;s Attorny&#8217;s Office<\/strong>)<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Earlier this year, a jury convicted Tarta of bank fraud, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft charges. On Sept. 10, Tarta was sentenced to six years and nine months in federal prison.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Smetanca and Farcas pleaded guilty. Smetanca was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison, while Farcas was sentenced to 2.5 years.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WFLD\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">&#8220;Defendant repeatedly engaged in criminal conduct that imposes an enormous toll on the U.S. economy,&#8221; Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Hayes argued in the government\u2019s sentencing memorandum in Tarta\u2019s case.\u00a0 &#8220;Card skimming is a widespread problem plaguing financial institutions and consumers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\"><b data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source:<\/b> Details for this story were provided by the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office of Northern District of Illinois.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/us\/il\/cook-county\/chicago\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chicago<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/news\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO &#8211; Three men have been sentenced to federal prison for an ATM card-skimming scam in Chicago and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":234942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5404,6082,5386,1818,50,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-234941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-cook-county","10":"tag-crime-publicsafety","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-illinois","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115222150024289954","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}