More than 200 fake credit cards seized

By Guillermo Contreras
Updated 05:26 p.m., Monday, March 26, 2012

They were dressed like any tourist and shopped some high-end stores on San Antonio's Northwest Side, buying iPods, iPhones, computers and designer clothes, among other luxuries, according to authorities.

But unlike most consumers, federal investigators say, a trio from Mexico's capital had more than 200 credit cards — all of them fake — that they had mailed to themselves here before they left home to use on shopping sprees.

Agents with a U.S. Secret Service-led task force arrested the suspects — Aristides Otero, Carlos Acosta and Edgar Corona — after learning they had shopped at stores at The Rim and at The Shops at La Cantera. Court records show they'd been here a few times before, making similar weekend trips for products they could sell back home.

The men were indicted last week on credit-card fraud charges carrying penalties of up to 20 years in federal prison. They are being held in a federal jail, pending arraignment next week.

Investigators have yet to tally the total loss value, but estimates of a handful of the electronics seized exceed $5,000.

“We were able to follow them around on a shopping spree,” said Jacquelyn Carter, special agent in charge of the Secret Service in San Antonio. “They went to La Cantera, some pretty nice stores. They had iPhones, computers and designer clothing.”

The iPhones usually sell for about $200 with a two-year cell phone contract, but the suspects bought them sans contract at $800 each, using the fake credit cards that bore the suspects' actual names, according to prosecutors.

“It's not a new scheme. People get caught at the border with cards, but not this many on such a large scale,” Carter said. “This is the first time in a while that we've seen anything like this here.”

The case came to a head last month when agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection helped by the South Texas Regional Task Force, which includes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and San Antonio police, tracked packages that had been delivered to San Antonio from Mexico, with Otero and Acosta as the recipients.

Besides Apple stores, Otero, Acosta and Corona had used the cards — or tried to — at Best Buy and Target, among others, agents said.

They found Otero had 99 fake credit cards, Acosta possessed 52, and Corona had 56, according to the indictment. A criminal complaint affidavit said Acosta admitted he had made four trips to make fraudulent credit card purchases, Otero admitted he had traveled to San Diego, Calif., twice and to San Antonio three times for faux-card sprees. Corona claimed it was his first trip to the U.S.

The men told investigators they bought the fake cards in Mexico. Carter said whoever made the cards encoded them with stolen numbers, some of which were still usable.

“The quality was not that great,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ray Gattinella. “The reason they had so many of them is sometimes they wouldn't work. They'd (try) two or three. If they didn't work, they'd move on.”

The Express-News contacted some of the businesses for comment Monday, but they either declined or did not return calls.

gcontreras@express-news.net

More than 200 fake credit cards seized - San Antonio Express-News