Two charged in credit card cloning scheme with 88 victims

Hoover Police Department charged a male and female suspect in a credit card cloning scheme involving 88 victims and spanning eight states.

Merchants at Riverchase Galleria reported suspicious credit card transactions on Wednesday, July 22. When officers responded, the two suspects were in the Belk parking lot attempting to leave the area.

Officers found 88 stolen or cloned credit cards in the suspects’ possession, and Swave Deangelo Mable, 28, and Ashley Yavonne Johnson, 23, were arrested.

Mable and Johnson had made 34 fraudulent purchases, totaling $2,200, at 10 stores in the Galleria before their arrest.

Detectives with the Financial Crimes Unit have identified 11 of the 88 victims. It is unknown where the suspects got the stolen credit card data, according to Hoover PD.

“Credit card cloning is an area that we’ve really seen is really exploding among criminals over the past few years,” said Capt. Gregg Rector. “Most of the cloning cases that we’re seeing, that credit card data is being stolen by the use of skimming devices.”

Skimmers are typically placed on ATMs and gas pumps, Rector said, but there is technology that makes skimming and cloning more difficult.

“We’re hoping that credit card companies and banks are possibly on the verge of launching that new technology,” Rector said.

Warrants were obtained on Friday, July 24. Mable was charged with trafficking in stolen identities, possession of marijuana 2nd degree and possession of drug paraphernalia. Johnson was charged with trafficking in stolen identities.

Mable and Johnson are being held at Jefferson County Jail. Anyone with additional information can contact Hoover Detective Austin Tubbs at 444-7602.