In the US city Atlanta, two Bulgarian men arrested in November with more than USD 57 000 in cash, were indicted late Tuesday by a federal grand jury for allegedly running an ATM card skimming operation, the US AJC news portal reported.

Nikolay Nikolov and Yordan Kavoklov, both 23 years old, allegedly attached a scanning device to ATMs in the Atlanta area to steal bank card numbers and passwords from dozens of cardholders, authorities said.

"These defendants allegedly stole the bank card numbers and passwords from dozens, if not hundreds, of unsuspecting individuals," U.S. Attorney David Nahmias stated.

Nahmias said the operation worked like this:

The men's skimming device would automatically record a customer's debit card information when the card was swiped, and a hidden camera would automatically film the keypad as the customer entered their personal code.

The men would e-mail the information to Russia and Bulgaria and receive account information in return for bank customers outside Georgia. The pair uploaded the account information onto inactivated gift cards stolen from stores like Sears and Bass Pro Shop.

The men were found with 80 stolen gift cards with altered magnetic stripes and passwords written on the face of the cards, and USD 3 000 in USD 20 bills. A further search found USD 57 000 in cash, about half of that wrapped in plastic bags stuffed inside the door panel of one of the men's Jaguar cars, police said.

Nikolov and Kavoklov were charged with conspiracy, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. They face up to 60 years each in jail and could pay up to USD 250 000 each, authorities said.

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