Police said they have identified and charged a Romanian national with illegally accessing over 4,600 account numbers, including more than 1,000 SNAP benefit accounts.
Florin Doroiman, who is presently detained in Virginia, is suspected of being a member of an organized Romanian criminal gang, according to the US Secret Service.
The lawsuit dates back to December 18, 2024, when Walmart made the initial notice about stolen account numbers.
We have new developments in a subject that 28/22 News has been covering, which impacts thousands of people in our area.
Somebody accused of card skimming at the Wilkes-Barre Township Walmart has been arrested and charged with various felonies, including possession and use of unauthorized equipment.
Police suspect he has committed similar acts throughout the country, and he is not acting alone.
Florin Doroiman of Romania fraudulently got 4,600 account numbers from the Wilkes-Barre Township Walmart late last year. More than 1,000 of those were from EBT cards, which include government assistance that allows people to buy groceries.
Florin Doroiman of Romania has been arrested, according to Wilkes-Barre Township Police. He is accused of using a card skimmer to steal money from thousands of people’s accounts.
Doroiman is based in California, and authorities believe he entered the country illegally.
“He is a member of an organized Romanian gang that engages in access device fraud, skimming, burglaries, and other similar activities. According to Det. Robert Capparell of the Wilkes-Barre Twp. Police Department, this gang operates worldwide.
He was apprehended in Virginia when surveillance video captured him installing a card skimmer at a Walmart in Amherst County.
Doroiman, according to investigators, did the same thing at the Wilkes-Barre Township Walmart in December 2024.
Nearly 5,000 credit cards were hacked at the store.
“The skimmer was in place for 13 days before it was identified and reported to authorities, so those were the prospective victims during that period. “Those are the compromised accounts,” Det. Capparell explained.
Over 1,000 of those compromised accounts have EBT cards that include SNAP advantages.
28/22 News first reported on reports of stolen benefits in January.
“My food stamps were activated at midnight, and they were removed at 5:19 a.m. Amanda Evans, a Wilkes-Barre resident, claimed, “All of it but one cent,” back in January of this year.
Congress prohibited the refunding of stolen SNAP benefits in December 2024, and card safeguards in Pennsylvania are weak.
According to authorities, the suspect, Florin Doroiman, will be imprisoned in Virginia until his legal issues are settled.
The charges he’s facing will then return him to Pennsylvania.
Police want to use some of the material gathered during this investigation to track down the other members of the suspected Romanian organized crime cell.