United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
Northern District of Texas

LOCAL MEN INVOLVED IN CREDIT CARD
“SKIMMING” FRAUD SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON

DALLAS — A Wautauga, Texas, man, Bobby Noy Soulinthong, 26, who pled guilty to his role in a credit card “skimming” scheme, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor to 18 months in prison, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. Other defendants, charged in separate indictments but involved in the same scheme, have also pled guilty and have been sentenced. Dung Ba Nguyen, 28, of North Richland Hills, Texas, and Bryan Nanthathongthip, 24, of Dallas, were each sentenced earlier this year to 12 months in prison. All three defendants were ordered to pay restitution.

Nguyen admitted purchasing stolen credit card account information that had been “skimmed” from restaurant customers, and admitted having more than 100 credit card account numbers stored on his personal “thumb drive.” Soulinthong and Nanthathongthip admitted purchasing goods from GameStop and Target with counterfeit debit cards, which they knew had been electronically encoded with a stolen account number.

The account numbers were stolen by a method known as “skimming.” Individuals working at North Texas restaurants surreptitiously recorded account numbers and other account information from the magnetic strips on restaurant customers’ credit and debit cards with a small hand-held device known as a “skimmer.” After purchasing the stolen account information, Nguyen encoded it onto other credit cards. Soulinthong and Nanthathongthip used the re-encoded cards to purchase consumer goods that they could then re-sell. The restaurant customers whose credit card information had been stolen would receive the bills for those purchases.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised the investigative efforts of the U.S. Secret Service and the Euless, Arlington, Haltom City, Bedford, Plano and North Richland Hills, Texas, Police Departments. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Buie.

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