McDonald's Employee 'Skims' $50K off of La. Drive-thru Customers
The Office of Inadequate Security is reporting that investigators working as part of the Louisiana Financial Crimes Task Force have concluded a three month investigation into numerous credit card fraud complaints received from St. Tammany Parish residents. The investigation has revealed approximately 57 victims with an estimated financial loss of over $50,000 and has resulted in eight suspects facing numerous fraud charges.
During the course of the investigation, detectives learned that all of the reported victims had made purchases at the same McDonald’s restaurant in Mandeville, LA. With the assistance of corporate security representatives from McDonald’s, task force investigators discovered that a McDonald’s employee, identified as Todd Pea of Lacombe, LA, had been recruited by a criminal network to “skim” credit card numbers from drive-thru customers while working at the Mandeville restaurant. Pea passed along the electronic credit card information to members of the criminal organization who transferred the information to counterfeit credit cards.