By J.M. Lawrence
Leaders of Boston’s Tibetan community yesterday rallied around a 25-year-old refugee accused of a $105,000 credit card theft scheme based at a Cape Cod gas station.
“Our people are really shocked. He could not do this,” said Tashi Kamson, president of the Boston Tibetan Association.
Sonam Dhondup, who fled Chinese-occupied Tibet last year and was living at the Buzzards Bay gas station, faces federal fraud charges as does another gas station worker, Ouajdi “Wassie” Ben-Mrad, 27, a Tunisian national.
Investigators claim the men copied 62 customers’ credit cards using a “skimmer device” and created phony copies used to buy merchandise in three states.
But supporters of Dhondup, who grew up in a rural village, claim he is illiterate, speaks no English and could not comprehend such a scheme. He began running the pumps three months ago.
Credit card theft alleged at gas station
Cape Cod Times
(Published: February 13, 2004)
By KEVIN DENNEHY
BUZZARDS BAY – Secret Service agents and local police yesterday swarmed into a Main Street gas station and arrested two employees on charges of credit card and identity theft.
The two men, whose names were not released by authorities, are accused of stealing credit card information for months and making some $250,000 in purchases.
Police said the owners of Cape Cod Filling Station, where the two men worked, were unaware of the activity, which may be part of a national operation.
As investigators searched the station at about 1 p.m. yesterday, they discovered what they thought was a pipe bomb. The surrounding block was evacuated as a state police bomb squad detonated the object.
The arrested men are natives of Tunisia and Tibet, said Bourne Police Chief John Ford. One worked at Cape Cod Filling Station for four years, while the other was hired in recent months. It is unclear if they knew each other before working at the station.
The men were taken to a police station in Braintree last night to be detained.
“The investigation is far from over,” Ford said yesterday. “This is a major operation that (stretched along) the entire Eastern Seaboard.”
The Secret Service agent in charge of the investigation did not return calls last night.
Police don’t know whether other stations or stores in the region were involved. They would not comment on the ongoing investigation.
Tipped off by residents
Yesterday they focused on the Buzzards Bay station, where cheap gasoline prices and long lines have kept attendants scrambling for months. The station has two full-serve pumps.
Police were tipped off by dozens of residents complaining about credit card charges over the last few months, Ford said. One Bourne resident said more than $2,000 was run up on his credit card within five hours of using it, police said.
In identity fraud schemes, thieves can swipe credit card information in seconds using customers’ cards, and use the numbers to make purchases over the telephone or online.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, 27.3 million people nationwide – nearly one in 10 Americans – has been victimized by identity theft in the past five years.
Bourne police had help
As soon as Bourne police began investigating several months ago, police knew they’d need assistance, Ford said.
Yesterday’s arrest included officials from the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Postal Service, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Bourne police and state police.
At about 10:30 a.m. yesterday, investigators gathered at the Bourne police station, across the street from the gas station. One of the targeted men was working, and they waited until the second arrived to replace him.
The arrest occurred without incident, police said, though concerns of a pipe bomb complicated the investigation.
Cape Cod Filling Station is owned by Jason Fares, a native of Lebanon who moved to the United States about 17 years ago and bought the Buzzards Bay station in 1993.
In Fares’ business office, a couple of blocks from the station, employees leaned out the windows to watch as police detonated the suspected bomb.
Fares yesterday would not comment on the investigation.
One company employee said yesterday that credit card companies normally send a letter if a card is swiped twice. But he said the station had not been told of any problems.
“We have no idea what’s going on,” said the man. “We have heard no complaints.”