(U.S. Attorney's Office for San Diego and Imperial County)... They are prosecuting a groups involved in identity theft crimes.

The crimes occured throughout Southern California, Including Imperial County. 8 suspects are being prosecuted, with one still at large. The group developed skimmers, that were placed on gas pumps throughout Southern California. The skimmers read credit and debit card information. The perpetrators are all from the Los Angeles area. After obtaining the skimmed information, the thiefs made unauthorized cards encoded with the victims information for there own use. The most recent prosecuted individual admitted to stealing over 600,000 all by himself.