2 Bulgarians held in Atlanta-area ATM scam

Two Bulgarian men arrested with more than $57,000 in cash were indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury for allegedly running an ATM card skimming operation.

Nikolay Nikolov and Yordan Kavoklov, both 23, allegedly attached a scanning device to ATMs in the Atlanta area to steal bank card numbers and passwords from dozens of cardholders, authorities said.

“These defendants allegedly stole the bank card numbers and passwords from dozens, if not hundreds, of unsuspecting individuals,” U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said.

Nahmias said the operation worked like this:

The men’s skimming device would automatically record a customer’s debit card information when the card was swiped, and a hidden camera would automatically film the keypad as the customer entered their personal code.

The men would e-mail the information to Russia and Bulgaria and receive account information in return for bank customers outside Georgia. The pair uploaded the account information onto inactivated gift cards stolen from stores like Sears and Bass Pro Shop.

On Nov. 6, Cobb County police arrested the duo at the Bank of America on Windy Hill Road in Marietta after witnesses reported seeing them using multiple cards at the ATM machines, officials said.

The men were found with 80 stolen gift cards with altered magnetic stripes and passwords written on the face of the cards, and $3,000 in $20 bills. A further search found $57,000 in cash, about half of that wrapped in plastic bags stuffed inside the door panel of one of the men’s Jaguar, police said.

Nikolov and Kavoklov were charged with conspiracy, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. They face up to 60 years each in jail and could pay up to $250,000 each, authorities said.