The state Attorney General’s Office has charged 27 Dauphin County residents with participation in a massive bank fraud scheme that drained an additional $2.3 million from six area banks.
The sister case joins last year’s wave of arrests in Cumberland County, increasing the total number of conspirators to 48.
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According to arrest records, the conspirators would pose as workers in the bank’s fraud department and lure victims into providing login information over the phone.
They would then lock their bank accounts and transfer the money to secondary accounts, according to arrest records.
Victims told detectives that the suspects asked them to supply personal information, such as online banking logins, passwords, and two-factor identification numbers, which they received while accessing their accounts.
They would then take money from those secondary accounts via ATMs, casino cash advances, Cash App, and Apple Cash. According to court documents, the Dauphin County scheme collected $2.3 million from 660 victims, in addition to the losses incurred in the Cumberland County cases.
The plan targeted members of the 1st Federal Credit Union, Belco Community Credit Union, Fulton Bank, M&T Bank, Navy Federal Credit Union, and Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union.
The AG’s Office charged the newest wave of defendants in late November, but the records were sealed until January 27 to allow investigators to catch the conspirators, according to a sealing order signed by Dauphin County Judge Deborah Curcillo.
Curcillo also ordered that police records outlining probable cause for the arrests be withheld from the defendants for a month. The attorney general’s office requested the wait to prevent any of the defendants from tipping one another off about the substance of each warrant.
According to police documents, the conspiracy recruited “funnel account” users using social media adverts that promised fast riches in exchange for the use of their bank accounts to assist in laundering the money.
Conspirators also had at least one “insider” working for the United States Postal Service who provided them with “arrow keys,” which are ZIP code-specific keys used by postal workers to open blue mailboxes.
Conspirators dug through mail to steal checks and then reprinted them.
The majority of the conspiracy defendants were charged with several offenses, including membership in a corrupt organization, conspiracy to join a corrupt organization, theft by unlawful taking, criminal use of a communication facility, and access device fraud.
Some others were charged with identity theft and computer trespass.
The majority of those charged were released on $100,000 unsecured bail. Several people who had been unable to make bail remained in prison.
