BECU Cracks Card Skimming Ring At Wendy's

A worker at a local Wendy's restaurant was arrested yesterday, along with two alleged accomplices, and charged with identity theft after she allegedly used a "skimmer” to steal credit card information from as many as 135 customers. The investigation was initiated by the King County Sheriff's office after evidence was brought to it by a fraud investigator at BECU, who had linked violations to several member accounts to the Tukwila Wendy's restaurant on International Boulevard. "The credit union notified them of fraudulent credit card activity,” Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County Prosecutor's office told Credit Union Journal yesterday. The Wendy's worker was identified as 33-year-old Maria DeHoyos-Ortiz. During the nine-month investigation that followed, King County detectives came to believe DeHoyos-Ortiz was lifting credit card information using a handheld "skimmer," a credit card reader that stored identifying information contained on a card's magnetic strip. That information was copied onto forged credit cards, which were then used at Puget Sound-area stores. Posted in: Debit Card Fraud