Florida man sentenced in scheme to steal thousands of debit, credit card account numbers in MA, ME, NH, CT

BOSTON – A Florida man was sentenced in federal court in Boston for his role in a scheme to steal thousands of customers’ debit and credit card account numbers and other personally identifying information via a network of electronic equipment clandestinely installed at gas stations across New England.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Justice, 32-year-old Luis Angel Naranjo Rodriguez of Hialeah, Fla., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to five years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. Naranjo Rodriguez was also ordered to pay $21,267 in restitution to victims of the scheme. On Jan. 18, 2023, Naranjo Rodriguez pleaded guilty to eight counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of possessing 15 or more counterfeit or unauthorized access devices (the debit and credit card account numbers) and one count of possessing device-making equipment (the card skimming devices).

Naranjo Rodriguez secretly and unlawfully installed card skimming devices in gas pumps in Massachusetts gas stations and in other New England states. The devices were programmed to send Naranjo Rodriguez’s mobile phone a text message with stolen account information after customers had used their debit or credit cards to purchase gas at the compromised fuel pumps. Card skimming devices linked to Naranjo Rodriguez’s mobile phone were traced to at least 11 different gas stations located in Lynnfield, Concord, Malden, Taunton, Randolph and Raynham; Portland, Maine; Nashua, N.H.; and Willington, Conn.

Between April 2019 until November 2019, Naranjo Rodriguez traveled frequently from Florida to Massachusetts to maintain this network of card skimmers. During the course of the scheme, Naranjo Rodriguez’s mobile phone received at least 4,878 text messages containing stolen debit and credit card account numbers. Many of these text messages also included the account holders’ names and Personal Identification Numbers (PINs).

Naranjo Rodriguez cloned the account information belonging to the unwitting victims onto gift cards and other prepaid cards in order to steal money from them, typically by using the cloned cards to make ATM withdrawals, to purchase expensive consumer goods that could be resold in secondary markets, and to request cash back on debit card transactions. On Nov. 16, 2019, security cameras at a Framingham gas station and CVS captured Naranjo Rodriguez using four cloned cards to withdraw money from victims’ bank accounts at ATMs. Naranjo Rodriguez was arrested the same night at the Concord Rotary Gulf gas station, where he was tampering with a fuel pump after the gas station had closed. In Naranjo Rodriguez’s car, the four cloned cards from the ATM withdrawals earlier that night were found, along with fuel pump keys, black latex gloves, four card skimming devices, and the mobile phone that was receiving the text messages with the stolen credit and debit card account numbers.

​United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins and Andrew Murphy, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service, Boston Field Office made the announcement. Special assistance was provided by the Concord, Lunenburg and Raynham Police Departments in Massachusetts, Nashua (N.H.) Police Department and the Portland (Maine) Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred M. Wyshak, III of Rollins’ Organized Crime & Gang Unit prosecuted the case.