Queens cops arrested three Romanian immigrants and charged with allegedly tampering with several Queens ATMs in order to steal customer’s personal information. According to court documents, the men were seen entering several banks, hiding their faces, and used “skimmer” devices to steal customers’ account information and pin numbers from credit and debit cards used at the ATMs.

Skimmer devices are used by criminals to steal sensitive information from ATM machines. When they obtain a card’s data, they encode it onto bogus credit cards or simply sell it to others in identity theft schemes.

Possession of skimmer devices in New York is a crime. All three defendants, Mirel Leahu, Marian Tudor, and Danel Opre were charged in Queens Criminal Court with third-degree burglary, second-degree criminal mischief, criminal possession of forgery devices, possession of burglar’s tools, third-degree unlawful possession of personal identification information and second-degree unlawful possession of a skimmer device. The charges carry up to seven years in prison.