Romanian man arrested, accused of credit card fraud
An Oklahoma bank is out thousands of dollars after a Romanian man admitted to making multiple ATM transactions using re-encoded credit cards, police said.
About 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday, an employee at BancFirst, 1111 N Lincoln Blvd., contacted police about a man trying to use “fraudulent credit cards” at the ATM. The employee called back to say the man, later identified as Dragos Constantin Badea, had walked away.
Officers were able to locate Badea, 40, less than half a mile away at a MidFirst Bank ATM.
In his wallet, police found five silver Visa credit cards with pin numbers written on the front of the cards. A Romanian ID card, a personal credit card, a hotel room key and $755 in cash also were found in the wallet, according to a police report.
Police said the magnetic strip on the cards had been re-encoded with a different account number than the card originally had.
A BancFirst employee told investigators that they had been notified by security at branches in Moore and Norman of fraudulent credit cards used at ATMs by Badea.
During a search of Badea’s hotel room, investigators found about $15,000 in cash, a computer and a list of addresses. Badea told investigators that he made 15 to 20 ATM transactions on Wednesday, starting in Moore and ending in Oklahoma City. He said the accounts from which the money was withdrawn did not belong to him, according to a court affidavit.
An officer noted that BancFirst’s loss was over $22,000.
U.S. Secret Service agents were notified of the case and collected all evidence related to the suspected fraud, police said.
Badea was taken to the Oklahoma County jail on complaints of unlawful use of a credit card, unauthorized use of a computer and engaging in criminal offenses in two or more counties. He is being held in lieu of $14,000 bail, jail records show.