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Bulgarians plead guilty to stealing customer data at ATMs

By Palm Beach Business.com

FORT LAUDERDALE — Two Bulgarians have pleaded guilty to federal fraud and identity theft charges in connection with a scheme to steal PIN and bank account numbers at JPMorgan Chase Bank ATMs throughout South Florida.

According to federal authorities, the two men, Aleksandar Nikolov and Toscho Ilyeff, both Bulgarian citizens, placed wireless cameras on ATMs to record PINs and account numbers as customers accessed their accounts. The footage containing the data would be transmitted to a cell phone, and then encoded onto  blank Visa gift or debit cards.

The two then would use the cardso withdraw cash from the victims’ accounts at ATMs throughout Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Their take, according to court records: nearly $112,500.  They also stole personal information from more 800 people.

Nikolov and Ilyeff face a maximum of 10 years on the fraud charge and a mandatory two years on the identity theft charge.  Federal Judge William P. Dimitrouleas is scheduled to sentence the two on August 31.