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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — Township police have arrested two people accused in a credit card scam Sunday.
Richard Dilday Wright, 31, of Bristol, and Krystal Long, 31, Wilkes-Barre, used fake credit cards to defraud Target, authorities allege.
According to criminal complaints:
Police were notified by Target’s store loss prevention officer that someone was using fake or stolen cards to purchase items.
The suspect, later identified as Wright, attempted to use three different credit cards to purchase $413 of Visa gift cards.
The loss prevention officer lost Wright when he drove off in a blue Kia Sorrento. Police found the car in the Best Buy parking lot.
Officers in an unmarked car later conducted a traffic stop. Wright and a passenger, later identified as Long, tried to conceal something in the passenger glove compartment.
An officer asked Long if she had been shopping at Target. She yelled back “yes.”
Long later asked why their vehicle was pulled over. The officer told her one of the credit cards she used was flagged.
Long provided the officer with the three cards in question after he asked for them. The officer immediately identified two of the cards as fake.
A records check revealed Wright had a warrant for his arrest in Montgomery County. When asked if he had any weapons or credit cards on him, Wright reportedly said: “I have a few.”
A search found Wright had 10 counterfeit credit cards. In the vehicle, police found a Bluetooth skimmer/encoder that is used to reprogram magnetic strips with different card information.
Wright and Long were arraigned Sunday by District Judge James M. Dixon.
He was charged with 10 counts of access device fraud and one count of possession of unlawful device-making equipment.
Long was charged with three counts of access device fraud, theft by deception and related counts.
They were remanded to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $25,000 bail each.