LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Three Romanian nationals are facing a felony charge after state and federal investigators connected them to a card skimming scheme spanning multiple cities in West Texas.<\/p>\n
According to the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center (FCIC), Sebastian Ionut Stefan Bratu, Francesco Matei, and Iosiv-Roberto Curea were affiliated with a larger, transnational organized crime group.<\/p>\n
Investigators say the three men installed card skimming devices in Lubbock, San Angelo, Abilene, and Amarillo, in an effort to collect credit and EBT card numbers.<\/p>\n
The men were arrested Thursday, July 16, in San Antonio. They are booked in the Bexar County jail, each charged with Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity, a first-degree felony. <\/p>\n
These cases will be prosecuted in Randall, Lubbock, Potter, and Bexar counties, according to FCIC.<\/p>\n
All of the people whose card information was skimmed in Lubbock have been notified, according to Lubbock police.<\/p>\n
Kasie Davis with the Lubbock Police Department said skimmers can be nearly impossible for the average person to detect. Criminals can install various types of skimmers \u2014 including false keypads and card readers \u2014 to copy a card\u2019s magnetic strip.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I could tell people there\u2019s a specific skimmer to look out for,\u201d Davis said. \u201cUnless you are trained to identify a skimmer, it is really hard for the average individual to be able to identify that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerraline Frerich, a commercial fraud specialist with Lubbock National Bank, said even manned checkout lanes are at risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese individuals are extremely good at what they do,\u201d Frerich said. \u201cThey can install these devices very quickly, even if that means that the checker, you know, turns their head just for a few moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frerich and Davis said the best way to protect yourself from skimming is to use tap-to-pay, especially through a digital wallet on your phone. If tap-to-pay is not available, chip is the next best option.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally try, if at all possible, to avoid the actual skimming, the actual swiping of the card itself, because that is the primary mode of skimming whenever it comes to credit card and debit card use,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n
Frerich said catching skimming early is critical and recommends checking your account and transactions every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re waiting until your statement comes, receiving it in the mail and going over things, then that has given those scammers the opportunity to hit your bank account multiple times versus being able to look at it in the moment and get things taken care of then,\u201d Frerich said.<\/p>\n
Frerich added that during most disputes, the bank will tentatively refund the customer right away while it investigates the report alongside authorities. <\/p>\n
If you see a fraudulent transaction or suspect a skimmer, reporting it quickly is key.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we definitely do not want the good citizens of Lubbock to live in fear \u2014 that\u2019s no way to live,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThe reality is there are criminals here in the Hub City and beyond. And so what we encourage is just being intentional, being aware, being aware of your surroundings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lubbock police said anyone who suspects or finds a card skimmer should call 911.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Three Romanian nationals are facing a felony charge after state and federal investigators connected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[294,136928,136929,168,1742,170,169,32408,223,137894,137893,20263,17970],"class_list":["post-391417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-crime","tag-francesco-matei","tag-iosiv-roberto-curea","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-crime","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-madeleine-hall","tag-news","tag-sebastian-ionut-stefan-bratu","tag-skimming","tag-walmart","tag-west-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}