MINNEAPOLIS - Paying the price for convenience just got real in Hennepin County. A California couple, Gohar Yesayan, 28, and Sarksis Mkhsyan, 29, have been arrested on charges that are scarily simple.
The couple is accused of implanting credit card skimmers in six gas pumps at a Shell station last week in New Hope.
Those skimmers copied the credit card numbers of at least 8 people who paid at these pumps, authorities said.
"In this case they were taking information from getting your credit card numbers and stealing your identity, and stealing all sorts of things," Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said.
Yesayan and Mkhsyan each face nine felony counts of identity theft.
The folks whose card numbers were taken would have had no idea at the time, officials said. The card reader at the pump would have behaved no differently at the point of sale.
Investigators said they are still trying to find out how the couple got the skimmers in the pump. They said neither are being cooperative.
"These are the kinds of white collar criminals that we have spent a lot of time on and will continue to. I'm hoping to put these folks in the big house for a chunk of time," Freeman said.
Both are being held at the Hennepin County Jail on $1 million bond.
Mkhsyan was arrested for identity theft two months ago in California, but he was released from jail on bond, authorities said.
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