Simone Carrie Diane Folk and Lavelle Denise Payne were arrested, convicted and sentenced for their part in a massive credit-card skimming ring, which netted nearly $750,000 from patrons at some of Washington, D.C.’s most popular restaurants.

But that has been no obstacle to getting other restaurant jobs.

Folk, a 28-year-old single mother with two children, worked at the M&S Grill at the time of her arrest in late March. In June, she pleaded guilty to using a credit card skimmer to steal credit card information that resulted in roughly $137,500 in purchases and affected 33 financial institutions.
But, in April, she was already working as a cashier at Cosi, a restaurant in Arlington, VA.

“Who am I to say she doesn’t deserve a second chance?” her boss, Robert Bates, told The Examiner. He also said Folk was honest about her history, and he was thinking of promoting her.

Payne, 41, a single mother with one child, worked at 701 Restaurant when she was arrested in March, and pleaded guilty to stealing credit card information that resulted in nearly $50,000 in purchases and affected 10 financial institutions.

After her arrest, she was first hired at Cosi, but began working April 23 at Harry’s Tap Room in Arlington, and was promoted to trainer.

Payne’s boss, John Cosgrove, was quoted in court documents as saying her work was invaluable and she was an exemplary employee.

Both women have since been sentenced in federal court. Folk was sentenced July 17 and received a one-year prison term. Payne was sentenced July 24 to serve six months of home detention.

All the other servers involved in the scheme have pleaded guilty. They are: Jamaal Snowden, 26, who is to be sentenced July 31; Vasha Monique Carter, 31, who will also be sentenced July 31. Shannon Eileen McLaughlin, 23, is to be sentenced August 7.

The admitted ringleaders are Joseph Artemus Bush III, age 28, who is scheduled to be sentenced August 21; Erick V. Burton, 38 will be sentenced July 31, and Aaron D. Gilbert, 25, who was scheduled to be sentenced July 24.

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Eight people have pleaded guilty to using skimmers to steal more than $736,000 from customers at Washington, D.C.’s M&S Grill, Clyde’s Restaurant and 701 Restaurant, according to federal prosecutors.

The participants in the scheme were arrested in April. Five of them were restaurant servers and surreptitiously used hand held card skimming devices to record information from the magnetic strip on customers’ credit cards. They then sold the information for $20 a card to the ringleaders in Maryland.

Those men copied it onto their own credit cards. When those cards were used, the stolen accounts were charged. Once they’d gained control of the accounts, they bought expensive purses and clothes from Gucci and Barneys, and televisions and iPods from Target.

The ringleaders are identified as Joseph A. Bush III, 28; Aaron D. Gilbert, 25; and Erick V. Burton, 38. The three men will be sentenced by summer’s end.

The servers involved in the scheme will be sentenced within the same time frame. They are Jamaal Snowden, 26; Lavell Payne, 41; Simone Carrie Diane Folk, 28; Vasha Monique Carter, 31, and Shannon Eileen McLaughlin, 23. All have pleaded guilty to conspiracy commit access device fraud.

The investigation began more than a year ago when Citibank contacted the Secret Service after receiving calls from cardholders complaining about charges they said they didn’t make.

Nearly 1.5 million Americans are enrolled in LifeLock’s identity theft services plan. Visit LifeLock.com to learn more about their comprehensive and innovative services. Enroll using the LifeLock promo code DEFENSE and pay only $9 a month and get a month of free services.

At the end of the 30-day free period, your card will be automatically billed $9 monthly unless you cancel within that first 30-day period. You can cancel anytime without penalty by calling 1-800-LIFELOCK. This offer is for new LifeLock members only.

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You’ve heard it a thousand times: Never let your credit (or debit) card out of your sight. Granted, it might be a little awkward, or even embarrassing, to follow your server from your table to the cash register when you pay your check, but in the Washington D.C. area there are .75 million new reasons to do it anyhow.

Five servers at five upscale D.C. area restaurants have been arrested and charged with using skimmers to add $750,000 in debts to customers’ credit and debit cards.

The restaurants involved are Clyde’s of Gallery Place, M&S Grill, 701 Restaurant, Carrabba’s Italian Grill and the Gaylord Hotel.

The servers accused of credit card fraud are Lavelle Denise Payne, Shannon Eileen McLaughlin, Jamaal Snowden, Vasha Monique Carter and Simone Carrie Diane Folk. The servers allegedly funneled the credit card data to Joseph Artemus Bush III, Erick V. Burton and Aaron Gilbert.

Bush allegedly converted the stolen data to clone credit cards, used them to buy American Express gift cards at Target and Walmart stores, then used the gift cards to make purchases as expensive stores like Gucci and Barney’s of New York. He was caught several times by video surveillance camera conducting transactions using the counterfeit cards.

Skimmers are easy to buy, easy to use and easy to conceal as demonstrated in this video.

In the D.C. the stolen data stayed local, but very often the large caches of data are traded, bought and sold in forums and chat rooms on the Internet. LifeLock employs several tools and strategies to safeguard your personal and financial information, including eRecon, which monitors thousands of these websites.

Visit LifeLock.com to learn more. Enroll in their identity theft service using the LifeLock promo code Defense and pay only $9 a month – the lowest price available anywhere.

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