Two Romanian men pleaded guilty to possessing skimming devices in Mississippi.
Alexandru Ionut Gheorghe, 28, and Marian Aurelian Neacsu, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing device-making equipment.
According to court filings, the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office Cyber Crime Division began receiving information from multiple agencies on June 21, 2024, about the discovery of skimmer devices in numerous establishments throughout central Mississippi.
The Cyber Fraud Task Force began looking into leads to discover the location of installed skimmers in the Southern District of Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana.
Prosecutors claim that surveillance video captured Gheorghe and Neacsu installing skimming devices on point-of-sale machines at numerous locations around the Southern District of Mississippi in June and July 2024. Double-sided adhesive secured the skimmers, which featured circuitry that captured or recorded bank card magstripe track data and PIN information.
These defendants stole or skimmed over $80,000 in SNAP benefits. The prosecutors claimed that the defendants utilized the stolen SNAP benefits in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
On April 15, 2025, Gheorghe and Neacsu will receive a sentence that carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in jail.
The US Secret Service and the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office are investigating the case as part of the Cyber Fraud Task Force, with help from the US Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General.
