Man Pleads Guilty In ATM Skimming Scheme In Stratford: Feds

STRATFORD, CT — A 50-year-old Romanian citizen pleaded guilty last Friday to an offense stemming from his participation in an extensive ATM skimming scheme that defrauded banks in Connecticut, including Stratford, and elsewhere, according to prosecutors.

Nicolae Marius Barbu pleaded guilty via videoconference before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Spector to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years. He's scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford on June 16.

According to court documents and statements in court, between February and June 2017, a Connecticut bank experienced approximately 35 incidents of ATM skimming at locations in Stratford, Monroe, Trumbull, Greenwich, Fairfield and elsewhere in Connecticut.

As part of the scheme, conspiracy members “placed skimming devices at the ATMs to capture account numbers and personal identification numbers” from customers who used their ATM cards at the ATMs while the devices were in place, officials wrote in a news release.

“Conspiracy members then used the captured information to make substitute ATM cards, and obtained money and made purchases using those cards,” officials wrote.

Barbu was accused of joining the conspiracy in April 2017.

“In addition, in April 2018, Barbu and another individual stole credit cards from an individual’s belongings at a gym in Rockville, Maryland,” officials wrote in the release. “They then used the cards to make more than $9,000 in purchases at Microsoft and Apple stores in Maryland.”

Barbu was arrested in Michigan in June 2021 and has been detained since his arrest.

Barbu has agreed to pay restitution $139,533 to the victim bank, and $9,536 to the banks that issued the credit cards used for his fraudulent purchases, according to officials.