A Romanian national has been sentenced in federal court to 23 months in prison to be followed by three years supervised release on his conviction of conspiring to commit bank fraud and access device fraud by “skimming” customer account information from PNC Bank Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) in Western Pennsylvania and elsewhere, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.
United States District Judge Donetta W. Ambrose imposed the sentence on Alexandru Razvan Serb, 29. Serb had pleaded guilty on December 1, 2010.
According to information presented to the court, between November 2009 and April 2010, Serb and his co‑defendant installed electronic skimming equipment known as a “skimmer” onto several PNC ATMs throughout Western Pennsylvania in order to secretly record customer bank account information contained on the magnetic strip of debit and credit cards used at the ATMs. The skimmed information was then re‑encoded onto credit and debit cards, and used at other ATMs in New York, where customer accounts were compromised by Serb and others. The actual losses from the skimming activity total approximately $208,000. At least 211 accounts were knowingly skimmed, although the figure might be higher.