Romanian nationals accused of placing credit card skimmers in 6 Jefferson Parish stores

Authorities in Jefferson Parish have arrested a pair of Romanian nationals accused in other states of placing credit card skimmers in stores to commit public benefits fraud.

Cosmin Vaduva, 36, and Elena Caldarareasa, 32, were booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna on March 23 on six counts of violating anti-skimming laws and six counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, said Sgt. Brandon Veal, spokesperson for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

Authorities allege the pair put skimmers on point-of-sale devices used for credit and debit card transactions in at least six Jefferson Parish businesses in March.

The locations of all the skimmers were not immediately available. But investigators recovered skimmers linked to the suspects at a convenience store on Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Metairie, a small grocery store just off Lapalco Boulevard in unincorporated Gretna and a convenience store in Kenner, according to arrest records.

EBT identity theft

Vaduva and Caldarareasa were extradited from Birmingham, Alabama, where federal prosecutors charged them March 18 with access device fraud and conspiracy to commit access device fraud.

They are accused of placing skimmers in at least eight stores in Alabama, court records show. Investigators accused the pair of committing public benefits fraud, seeking to steal public assistance money given to residents.

Vaduva and Caldarareasa placed the skimmers to target electronic benefit transfer cards (EBT cards). Their goal was to steal the identifying information from the cards and re-encode it onto new, "cloned" cards, using those to make unauthorized purchases, court records said.

Law enforcement agencies across the country have seen a rise in identity and financial information thefts targeting less-protected EBT and food assistance cards in the years after banks began introducing more security measures, such as embedded chips, for personal credit and debit cards, authorities have said.

The thieves usually target point-of-sale terminals in larger stores such as Walmart, Family Dollar and Dollar General as well as smaller local grocery stores, authorities said.

Video reviewed by Jefferson Parish Economic Crime Unit detectives and U.S. Secret Service agents investigating the Alabama skimmers show Vaduva placing the skimmers onto credit card readers in stores while checking out at registers.

Caldarareasa is seen distracting cashiers by asking questions, redirecting their attention and even using her body to block the view of Vaduva's actions, according to court records and incident reports.

Mississippi arrest

Jefferson Parish detectives identified a possible suspect vehicle in their cases and obtained photos of the suspects recovered from business surveillance videos. They shared the information with law enforcement in Mississippi and Alabama.

Vaduva and Caldarareasa were arrested March 12 when Grenada County Sheriff's Office deputies stopped their vehicle on Interstate 55 North based on warrants out of Louisiana and Texas, the department said.

Deputies searched the vehicle and seized three overlay skimmers, more than $8,000 in cash and several credit, debit and gift cards, according to court records.

Vaduva and Caldarareasa were being held Sunday at the Gretna jail. Bail for each was set at $240,000.