Ohio woman pleads guilty to skimming from ATMs in Connecticut

An Ohio woman pleaded guilty Friday to taking part in an ATM skimming scheme that stole nearly $300,000 from a Connecticut bank.

In a prepared statement, U.S. Attorney John Durham said 61-year-old Maya Florina Luiza DeSteffano pleaded guilty to one count each of bank fraud and aggravated identify theft in Hartford federal court.

Durham said that between February and June 2017, “a Connecticut bank experienced approximately 35 incidents of ATM skimming at locations in Stratford, Monroe, Trumbull, Greenwich, Fairfield and elsewhere in Connecticut.”

“As part of the scheme, conspiracy members placed skimming devices at the ATMs to capture account numbers and PIN numbers from customers who used their ATM cards at the ATMs while the devices were in place,” Durham said. “Conspiracy members then used the captured information to make substitute ATM cards, and obtained money and made purchases using those cards.”

Durham pegged the bank’s losses at about $286,069.

DeSteffano admitted that she installed and removed ATM skimming equipment at several locations, and used re-encoded cards and PINs to obtain money from several bank locations, Durham said.

“She further admitted that, in December 2017, she participated in ATM skimming activity in Virginia and Maryland and, in September and October 2018, she participated in skimming activity Georgia,” he said. “The banks victimized in these schemes suffered total losses of more than $191,000.”

DeSteffano has been behind bars since her arrest last December in Cleveland.

The charges she pleaded guilty to carry a maximum punishment of 32 years in prison. Her sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 22.

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