A small update to the story by Adolfo Flores of the Pasadena Star News:
The Secret Service has been called in. As significantly, the police are still looking for the owner of the gas station who closed the business and left town during Christmas week – right before all of the fraud reports starting coming in.
“In this case we are looking for three individuals, one of them is the former owner (Evgeny) Yakimenko,” Police Chief Marilyn Diaz
At a 7 a.m. press conference authorities provided a photograph of a man withdrawing funds from a victim’s account in Montebello. They are also investigating a Valero gas station up the street from EVG for fraudulent transactions.
Diaz confirmed that a skimming device was used to gather victims’ information when they used their cards in an ATM or in-store transaction.