Matthew K. Jensen reports on a case where arrests have been made but there is still no explanation of how the thieves obtained the credit card data:
Two men are in custody and under investigation by the FBI in an identity theft scheme that victimized 2,500 Cache County residents, Smithfield police officials said Wednesday.
In late 2008, San Francisco police served a search warrant on a Bay Area hotel room where detectives found multiple computers and a machine that manufactures magnetic strips used on the back of credit, debit and gift cards, Det. Travis Allen said.
In the computers’ hard drives were the credit card numbers of Cache County residents, many of whom had been notified by their banks of fraudulent charges on their accounts, Allen added.
Smithfield police say they received an unusual number of credit card fraud claims in the fall of 2007.
“We finally found one common factor among everybody that was calling us: They had all used the Family Fun Box,” Allen said.
The DVD-dispensing machines were located in the Summit Creek Sinclair gas station and Lee’s Marketplace in Smithfield. A third operated in the Wellcome Mart in Wellsville.
Read more in The Herald Journal