Two more Romanian nationals charged in large-scale ATM-skimming scheme at McKnight Road pharmacy

The U.S. Secret Service says ATM-skimming operations are typically perpetrated by Romanians traveling to the U.S. to steal from Americans, and that appears to be true once again in the latest Pittsburgh-area bust.

Two more defendants from Romania appeared in federal court on Friday and face detention hearings later this month.

The Secret Service says they were staying in a Cranberry hotel for 10 days in June while skimming an ATM at a Rite Aid in Ross.

A search of their room turned up some 500 counterfeit cards and skimming equipment.

The investigation follows a similar case in May in which a Romanian national was charged in federal court with installing skimmers at ATMs across Western Pennsylvania and Ohio. Another Romanian national prosecuted here federally went to prison in 2021 for installing skimmers in the Meadville area while staying at a McKnight Road hotel.

It’s not clear if all the defendants are connected and are working in concert, although based on details from the prior cases it seems likely.

In the latest investigation, federal prosecutors charged Cosmin Laurentiu Burlacu and Laurentiu Stroie after Ross police arrested them on June 8 at a Rite Aid on McKnight Road.

In an affidavit, the Secret Service said skimming is a scheme “often committed by individuals from Romania” who install pinhole cameras and trackers on ATM machines to steal customers’ bank card data so they can make new cards to withdraw cash or buy merchandise.

Typically the tracker captures and stores the information from the magnetic strip on the card while the camera records customers as they enter their PIN.

The latest case developed on June 8 when Rite Aid employees saw the two men hanging around and recognized them from a prior incident involving a Wilkinsburg resident who had discovered unauthorized card charges from the Rite Aid. That case led to an ongoing investigation by Wilkinsburg police. Ross police responded and arrested the pair.

Burlacu presented a New York driver’s license, and Stroie handed over a Canadian license for “Albert Smith.” Database checks showed Burlacu, who is in his late 20s, had a passport and may be a U.S. citizen, but agents were still checking at the time of the affidavit. Stroie, born in 1989, was in the country on a temporary business Visa and entered the U.S. in February.

A search of the two suspects turned up a bunch of gift cards, such as a card for Applebee’s and other establishments. On the back of each card police found stickers with bank names and four-digit PIN numbers. All were counterfeit.

Officers also found a card key for the Extended Stay America in Cranberry, where Burlacu and Stroiehad rented a room from June 1 through June 10. A search there turned up more than $20,000 in cash, a computer, some 500 gift cards, passports, ATM skimmers, fabricated ATM panels with pinhole cameras and a ledger with bank ID numbers.

An inspection of the Rite Aid ATM also showed evidence of tampering.

Burlacu and Stroie are in the Allegheny County Jail.

The Secret Service has investigated several similar cases in the region. In May, federal prosecutors charged Ciprian Costel Borcea with installing skimmers at Dollar Bank ATMs in numerous locations that victimized 700 customers of some $450,000. Borcea was in the U.S. on a fake Italian passport under a false name, agents said.

In that case, the Secret Service said Borcea was working with at least four other conspirators across Western Pennsylvania and in the Cleveland area. He was arrested in Ohio and brought to Pittsburgh, where a federal grand jury indicted him in June on charges of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. He remains in jail.

In another case, Romanian national Janos Vaczi, 52, was sentenced in 2021 to 3½ years for installing skimmers on ATMs in Meadville and Erie while staying at a McKnight Road hotel. The FBI arrested him in 2019.

He told the sentencing judge he had fallen in with the wrong crowd, but prosecutors said he was a professional criminal and the leader of a conspiracy who came to the U.S. with one purpose: to rip off Americans.