NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A prolific credit card skimming scammer arrested in Chesapeake was sentenced to prison time this week.
52-year-old Cristian Romica Ristea, a Romanian national, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Jamar K. Walker, the Department of Justice announced.
It came nearly a year after Ristea was arrested while making an illegal transaction at a Bank of America ATM in Chesapeake.
During his arrest, officers found 36 “Vanilla Visa” gift cards used to store stolen credit card information, skimming tools and an international driver license containing the name “Christan Weber.”
A search of his house revealed 91 more gift cards encoded with stolen information. Overall, nearly 300 card numbers were compromised through Ristea’s scheme, according to one financial institution.
Prosecutors say Ristea stole information across the East Coast via the skimmers, portable card readers that he installed in ATMs. He also used pin hole cameras to get users’ PIN numbers.
Ristea’s sentencing comes just weeks after seven men were convicted in Norfolk court in a major gas pump skimming operation that included locations in Hampton Roads.