Sammamish resident sentenced to 4 years for ‘skimming’ ATMs

Published 2:04 pm Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Dmitry Sandler, a Sammamish resident who installed “skimming” devices on bank ATMs and raided 255 bank accounts for more than $176,000, was sentenced last Friday in U.S. District Court to four years in prison and $177,278 in restitution.

The 26-year-old was arrested in November 2011 while attempting to retrieve skimming equipment from a Chase Bank ATM in Everett.

Sandler was linked to a spree of skimming activity in the Seattle area and Denver area between April and November 2011. He pleaded guilty in February 2012 to bank fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

At sentencing U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez noted that Sandler is a Russian immigrant who will be deported following his prison term. Sandler “requested asylum saying he likes Americans, then he engaged in stealing money from these very people,” Martinez said.

According to records filed in the case, Sandler installed skimming equipment on various ATMs, along with a pinhole camera to capture the user’s personal identification number. The skimming equipment captured the account information, and Sandler would link that information up with the video of the person typing in their PIN. Sandler would encode the account information on a blank card and use the PIN to steal money from victim accounts.

The skimming devices were installed primarily on Chase ATMs in Lynnwood, Snohomish, Everett, Seattle and Denver.

In their request for a significant sentence for Sandler, prosecutors pointed out that while CHASE ultimately replaced money taken from the accounts, individuals had their lives and sense of security badly disrupted.

One victim said the money taken from her account meant she could not pay her rent and was almost evicted.

“This type of fraudulent activity targets and victimizes large numbers of ordinary, unwitting victims…  As the use of ATMs and debit and credit cards has become universal, virtually any person in modern society is a potential target and a foreseeable victim of such crimes.  What is more, victims are typically completely oblivious that their identities have been stolen until their accounts have been substantially emptied,” wrote prosecutors, in their sentencing memo.