TULSA — A Venezuela native pleaded guilty in federal district court here July 25 to participating in a bank theft scheme known as “jackpotting,” in which an automatic teller machine is forced to fraudulently dispense cash.
Eduardo Jose Mendez Garcia, 19, had lived in the U.S. just nine months at the time of his arrest, he told investigators.
Garcia admitted that he conspired with several other individuals to withdraw money by illegal means from an ATM at a QuikTrip convenience store in Tulsa on May 19.
ATM “jackpotting” is “a relatively new scheme where criminals install malicious software and/or hardware” in automatic teller machines that “forces the machines to spit out large amounts of cash on demand,” an agent with the U.S. Secret Service Cyber Crimes Task Force wrote in a search warrant affidavit.
Malware enables thieves to control ATMs and command them to dispense large amounts of cash repeatedly, sometimes until the machines are empty, federal investigators report.
Jackpotting often targets financial institutions that operate stand-alone ATMs inside big-box retailers, gas stations and convenience stores, the agent related.
In this instance, a little over an hour after a Loomis crew refilled the ATM, two thieves opened and tampered with the ATM while a third conspirator kept watch.
Between 2:34 p.m. and 3:37 p.m., six thieves, including Garcia, made multiple withdrawals totaling $35,200 from the Bank of Oklahoma Financial ATM, records show. Garcia made the last withdrawal at 3:37 p.m. and was arrested when Tulsa police arrived on the scene one minute later.
Garcia admitted conspiring with the others, was compelled to forfeit the $800 in his possession at the time of his arrest, was sentenced to nine months in prison and then will be deported. He admitted slipping into the U.S. illegally through Mexico.
TransFund, a subsidiary of Bank of Oklahoma, was victimized by a series of ATM jackpotting attacks in Oklahoma City “and other areas throughout the region,” the bank related in a lawsuit. Some 118 jackpotting attacks on TransFund ATMs resulted in losses that exceeded $7.3 million, BOKF reported.
Three Hispanic men convicted of defrauding an ATM in northwest Oklahoma City last year were credited for time served in detention after their arrest, but were ordered to pay the bank $22,400 in restitution, individually or collectively.
Bank of Oklahoma sued the company that manufactured hundreds of ATMs it sold the Tulsa-based financial institution, claiming the devices were “easily breached by malware attacks”. BOKF also sued Continental Insurance Co. for refusing to compensate the bank for the losses it sustained during more than 100 malware attacks on its ATMs in four states.
Both cases were filed in Tulsa’s Northern District federal court.