SALT LAKE CITY — A Romanian national on the run for two years has been arrested in his home country and extradited to Utah to face charges in connection with a skimming scheme.
Alexandru Cosmin Licsor, 37, was returned to the United States on Thursday, the FBI’s Salt Lake City Division announced Friday.
He was scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court on Friday on charges of having a skimming device, three counts of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
For one month starting in January 2015, Licsor and others installed skimming equipment in ATMs at Zion’s Banks in Salt Lake City, Murray, Midvale and Sugar House, resulting in the successful withdrawal of about $190,000 from more than 2,000 cards, according to a prepared statement from the FBI.
Skimming is when a device that reads the magnetic strips off debit and credit cards is installed secretly in card reading machines, such as ATMs and gas pumps, and records that bank card’s information.
“When a user inserted a credit or debit card into the ATM, the skimming device recorded the card data and the camera would record the customer’s entry of their PIN number,” the charges state.
After several days of collecting information, the group would move the skimming device to a new location, according to the indictment. They are also believed to have done the same thing at ATMs in New Mexico, according to the indictment.
The group managed to withdraw nearly $190,000 using stolen credit card and PIN numbers, but had attempted to withdraw about $513,000, the charges state.
Licsor’s associates had not been identified as of Friday.