Man spills beans on credit card scam, police say

By David Ibata

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In a case with lessons for consumers about protecting their identities, a 19-year-old Lawrenceville man who was caught allegedly trying to use a bogus debit card at an electronics store has spelled out for police how such scams works, Channel 2 Action News reported.

"He's finding mass amounts of credit card information, loading them onto these cards, and going out to make their purchases," Capt. Shawn McCarty of the Milton Police Department told Channel 2 about the suspect, Christian Ry Cangeopol.

The investigation began last Wednesday evening, when Cangeopol tried to use a Visa "1-2-3 Rewards" debit card to buy an Apple Macbook computer at the Fry's Electronics store at 3065 Webb Road in Milton, according to a police incident report.

The store called police after an employee noticed the card displayed one account number, but a different number came up when it was run through a card reader, police said.

When arrested and questioned by investigators, police said, Cangeopol told them how the scheme worked: He bought a credit card reader/writer off eBay, bought "dumps" or stolen credit card information off the Internet, and obtained loadable gift cards from a local Kroger.

Then, he went shopping....

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