{"id":12085,"date":"2026-09-21T10:00:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T10:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=12085"},"modified":"2026-09-21T10:00:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T10:00:31","slug":"romanian-crime-gangs-draining-us-welfare-accounts-wall-street-journal-investigation-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=12085","title":{"rendered":"Romanian crime gangs \u201cdraining US welfare accounts,\u201d Wall Street Journal investigation says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Under the title \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/us-news\/how-romanian-crime-rings-are-draining-u-s-welfare-accounts-c9750d32\">How Romanian Criminal Networks Are Draining US Welfare Accounts<\/a>,\u201d The Wall Street Journal published documents and evidence already submitted to American courts, showing that gangs of Romanian citizens, most of whom entered the US illegally, cloned welfare cards by installing so-called \u201cskimmers\u201d on ATMs.<\/p>\n<p>Skimmers, which fit perfectly over payment terminals and look almost identical, record the user\u2019s account number and PIN during a purchase. Often, criminals encode the data onto blank cards, then withdraw cash from ATMs or purchase commonly used items to resell them on the black market.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe technological savvy used by the criminal groups dates back to the Cold War, when Romania\u2019s Communist regime trained legions of engineers. As internet cafes proliferated, Romania also saw its rates of cybercrime skyrocket to one of the highest in the world, according to the State Department,\u201d the authors said.<\/p>\n<p>The case documents dozens of Romanian citizens, with first and last names, operating in California, Mississippi, Maryland, and Oregon. Many are in the US illegally or overstayed their visa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are no recent official estimates of how much money has been stolen. But the Agriculture Department said the federal government replaced USD 360 million in benefits stolen from 754,000 households between October 2022 and December 2024, before Congress withdrew that authority,\u201d the WSJ article pointed out.<\/p>\n<p>Although the investigation cites a DIICOT prosecutor who cooperates with American agencies to dismantle Romanian networks in the US, the revelations in the Wall Street Journal, which has 4.5 million subscribers and is the most decorated American financial publication, come as Romanian president Nicu\u0219or Dan is in the US for the UN parliamentary meeting.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, Dan published several laudatory editorials about the Trump Administration in US right-wing publications, possibly as a result of arrangements made by a lobbying firm hired by the Presidential Administration.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Under the title \u201cHow Romanian Criminal Networks Are Draining US Welfare Accounts,\u201d The Wall Street Journal published documents and evidence already submitted to American courts, showing that gangs of Romanian citizens, most of whom entered the US illegally, cloned welfare cards by installing so-called \u201cskimmers\u201d on ATMs. Skimmers, which fit perfectly over payment terminals and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}