Gas Station Attendant Charged with Idenitity Theft

Author: Ira
SENIOR MEMBER (Member for 2 yrs.+)
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 837
Location: NJ
Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:06 pm
Post subject: Man is accused of using device to obtain credit card informa

This took place here in New Jersey. It's scary because Kinnelon is the next town over from me, and East Hanover is where I used to work. Have we become a nation of low lifes?


Gas station attendant charged with identity theft

Man is accused of using device to obtain credit card information

Thursday, February 10, 2005 BY BILL SWAYZE Star-Ledger Staff

Police charged an East Hanover gas station attendant with identity theft, saying he used a hand-held electronic device to record credit card information of at least eight customers, and maybe hundreds more, police said yesterday.

Ismail Acim, 39, of Edison was arrested at the River Road Exxon Tuesday at 4 p.m. The man had the device on him at the time.

He was charged with several counts of credit card and identity theft and possession of the theft device, police detective Sgt. Vincent Colaiocco said yesterday.

To the owner of the station, Acim was the ideal attendant at the busy gas station on Route 10 East.

"He started in mid-December ... was extremely hardworking and would run out to serve the customers when they pulled in," Viqar Ahmed said.

As he served his customers, Acim secretly helped himself to the credit card information, police said.

With a sneaky swipe, the device, called a skimmer, copied their credit card information from the black magnetic strip on the back of the charge cards. That data was later downloaded into a computer and used to create fake cards, police said.

Eight people have called police since early last week reporting trouble. They told police they noticed purchases made in Virginia and Maryland on their credit card statements, police said.

But authorities said the number of victims could climb if investigators' hunches are on the money.

"There could be as many as 300 victims," Colaiocco said, noting that the skimmer holds up to 500 number entries.

The investigation began early last week. A woman looked at her credit card bill and noticed between $500 and $1,000 in purchases made in Virginia and Maryland -- purchases she never made. She called police as did seven others who told the same story.

Colaiocco said soon they noticed something while comparing notes.

"The common denominator: They all still had their credit cards and used them at that station," Colaiocco said.

Ahmed said Acim worked six days a week, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., since mid-December. He said Acim told him his wife and baby were back in Turkey. Ahmed and his employees were startled when police broke the news to them.

"He (Acim) worked side by side with one (attendant) and he never noticed anything," Ahmed said.

The matter remains under investigation, and Acim remains in the Morris County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

The case marks the second in Morris County in three months involving the use of a skimmer at a gas station.

In November, Kinnelon police charged two men with making purchases with stolen credit card numbers swiped at a Route 23 gas station.

The use of skimmers is part of the identity theft problem that victimizes 10 million Americans each year, last year ringing up $52.6 billion, according to Tom Cohn, spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission's regional office.

East Hanover police are asking anyone who has used a credit card at the River Road Exxon to read their statements carefully and call detectives at (973) 428-3053 if they spot trouble.

Bill Swayze can be reached at wswayze@starledger.com or (973) 539-7910.

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Ira

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