Arrests made in credit card scam

Police say N.Y. men found in Maine Mall area with hundreds of fake cards.

Three men from away are sleeping in a local jail following a $10,000 shopping spree on somebody else’s dime.

According to Sgt. Steve Webster of the South Portland Police Department, the trio from Brooklyn, N.Y., arrived in Maine at about 3 a.m. Saturday morning. After a short layover in a Scarborough motel, the men began hitting local stores with bogus credit cards.

Their whirlwind tour of local checkout lanes didn’t last long – they were sitting in the back of a police cruiser by 11:30 a.m. – but it was impressive, totaling slightly more than $10,000 in merchandise purchased with falsified credit cards. Stores hit included AT&T Wireless, Bull Moose Music, Gamestop, Sally’s Beauty Supplies and Walmart, in Scarborough, as well as Babies “R” Us and Toys “R” Us, both in South Portland.

The grafters seemed primarily interested in gaming systems, although six hair-trimming units were found among the haul. When the vehicle was searched, police found what Scarborough Detective Sgt. Rick Rouse describes as “a small cardboard box with about 100 credit cards, along with three wallets full of additional cards, all from various banks, like Chase, Capital One, Citi and other companies.” Also found were driver’s licenses from Florida, Illinois and New Jersey, all in the name of “Shawn Collins.”

“It appears that most of the credit cards had the same name on them,” said Rouse, Monday morning. “However, they didn’t have the hologram square that is commonly used on credit cards today. So, it’s believed they were all illegally manufactured.”

Arrested were Michael Barnes Jr., 32, Esley W. Porteous, 27, and Terrell J. Campbell, 25, all of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Each man was charged with aggravated forgery, a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and theft by unauthorized taking, a Class C felony that can earn an additional five years. Barnes also was charged with operating a motor vehicle without a license.

According to Rouse, it was Bull Moose employees who first got hip to the scam. After one of the men purchased $700 in merchandise, the other two tried their hand, each in succession, with less luck. The second had his card declined, while the third couldn’t get any help at all from the Bull Moose clerks.

“Of course, they were all using credit cards with the same name on it,” said Sgt. Webster, picking up the narrative. “By the time the third gentleman came in, they started to catch on that something might be wrong, and they refused to sell to him.”

Instead, said Webster, the Bull Moose crew said Toys “R” Us might have what the third man wanted to buy.

“Greed is a wonderful thing,” said Webster. “We had a heads-up as to where they might be, and there they were.”

Things happened in rapid succession at that point, when Toys “R” Us employees called in their own string of suspicious purchases.

When the men left the store with about $3,000 in gaming consoles in tow, South Portland police were already outside, looking for the 2001 Toyota Sequoia described by Bull Moose workers.

“One of the officers spotted the car,” said Sgt. Webster. “He watched them all come out of Toys “R” Us, get in to it – of course loading it up with merchandise – and pulled them over.”

The thieves attempted to talk their way out of the stop, to no avail.

“One of them tried to say they had never even been to Toys “R” Us, even though they had receipts and gift cards in the car,” said Rouse. “They gave different stories about looking for jobs, and having family or friends up here, but nothing seemed to really pan out.”

Porteous and Terrell were arraigned in Cumberland County Superior Court on Monday and are being held for cash bail of $50,000 and $10,000 respectively. Banes was able to make bail and was released.

Webster said the Secret Service will eventually claim jurisdiction in the case.

“There is a huge problem with these fraudulent credit cards,” he said. “The criminal masterminds get the information overseas. They then sell those card numbers to people here in the states. Once they have that information, all they need is a card-maker, basically.”

Although all of the cards found with the suspects were printed with one of two names, each card number was different, apparently derived from a list of compromised accounts. Each man went into each store with one of the cards, Webster says, because they apparently had no way to tell which had working account numbers.

“It’s kind of a hit-or-miss situation,” said Webster. “Some of the cards will work, others will be declined.”

Although the Brooklyn crooks were caught in record time, local police says shopkeepers must remain vigilant.

“This is not the first time this has happened around here,” said Webster. “It happened in Biddeford recently. It’s happening more and more.”