Carousel by The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal@wsj On a chilly day in March, a twice-deported Romanian national walked into a 7-Eleven in Toledo, Ohio, and secretly affixed a device called a skimmer to a credit card machine, prosecutors say. The man was allegedly part of a California-based criminal crew led by a fellow Romanian nicknamed Piranha. The gang’s aim, according to criminal charges, was to steal food-stamp benefits from customers who swiped their government-issued debit cards at the convenience store. Court records show informants helped foil the plot. But authorities say the operation mirrors a playbook Romanian organized crime groups are using across the U.S. to swindle hundreds of millions of dollars in public benefits. Reliance by states on antiquated magnetic-stripe technology makes it easier. The gangs depend on secretive “builders” who meticulously construct skimming devices that even diligent merchants can miss, investigators say. The illicit proceeds pay for rented luxury cars and homes with infinity pools, according to authorities. Cash in the form of crypto is spirited back to Romania and flows to real estate, gambling and crime bosses. There are no recent official estimates of how much money has been stolen. But the Agriculture Department said the federal government replaced $360 million in benefits stolen from 754,000 households between October 2022 and December 2024, before Congress withdrew that authority. Few states now pick up the tab. Defrauded SNAP recipients often must turn to family or food pantries until their next monthly allotment. Despite the Trump administration’s crackdown on public-benefits fraud, criminals have broadened their tactics, authorities say. They use bots to guess welfare recipients’ account numbers. They also run bogus transactions with people’s food-stamp accounts through cloned credit-card machines, and then move the funds into their own bank account. “Sadly, business is booming,” said Michael Peck, head of the Secret Service’s Global Investigative Operations Center, which combats financial crime. Read more at the link in our bio. Photos: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
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@fzfire Always gypsy
@maxisrael4 Nah, this is mad disrespectful. I'm a Mexican LIVING IN ROMANIA and people here are nice. Yeah, like in any country there are 💩 people sure, but that kind of behaviour comes mostly from the gypsy community. And don't get me wrong, those fellas as well have had a rough time over CENTURIES because of this profiling, there are good hard working gypsies too, but even here in Romania it's kinda well-known it's them, the problem is, this people HAVE the Romanian nationality, even if culturally, historically and genetically they're not related to ethnic Romanians. This is like saying we (all) Mexicans are drug dealers. The U.S. economy would collapse if it weren't because of our hardworking people doing the jobs americans won't do.
@maracaslsoca Capital punishment for public theft
@maracaslsoca Most Romania is gypsy from india
@maracaslsoca Keep bringing more people here from.third world junk countries
@mirceagoia A bunch on Romanians in the comments blaming gypsies for this. Like they, the “real” Romanians, are pure angels and they don’t steal😂😂. We all know the truth…don’t blame others for it.
@nyu_enjoyer "just deport them" and it's always a republican
@hugoxlbert cigány, not Romanian
@jacques.r.thelemaque Garbage article. Fomenting Right wing nationalist paranoia and recklessly targeting a beautiful country in the way it reports this story. 🤬
@shiona.not.fiona Roma gypsies run hardcore crime rings in Europe too.
@untouchableone1 IMPEACH TRUMP ON RICO AND SEX TRAFFICKING
@georgeniculae.photo Gipsies not romanians.