The FBI in the United States has smashed two Bulgarian crime rings accused of defrauding Las Vegas and Phoenix area car dealers out of $1.6 million, in addition to skimming ATM machines worth more than $700,000, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported on May 25 2010.

According to the report, a total of 11 people from the two rings were arrested and subsequently charged in three separate indictments in federal court following a two-year FBI investigation involving court-approved wiretaps.

In recent years, authorities in New Zealand, Australia, the US and other countries have reported of the scourge of the "skimming" scheme, particularly from eastern European crime rings, many of which were organised by Bulgarians.

During the federal court hearing on May 24, assistant US attorney Kathleen Bliss insisted that US citizen Dimitar Dimitrov be kept behind bars.

Bliss said FBI wiretaps show that Dimitrov, a convicted felon in Bulgaria and the US, would be a flight risk and a danger to the community if released from federal custody, the report said.

During the hearing it was revealed that the FBI had received information from Bulgarian police that the 58-year-old Dimitrov was an associate of organised crime in Bulgaria. He and his wife Viarka were also accused of illegally acquiring a 9mm sidearm during the course of the investigation.

The authorities have not revealed the identities of all 11 men, but for the moment, the others named in the indictment are Dragomir Taskov, Boyan Gueorguiev, Rossen Daskalov, Yuliyan Milushe and Nikolay Mladenov, the Las Vegas Review Journal said.

In February, three Bulgarian men were charged with skimming ATM machines and netting more than $137,000, in an operation  involving several machines over a 44-day period in Massachusetts. The men were identified as Ivaylo Hristov 28, and Anton Venkov, 40, who live in Toronto, Canada. The third man, according to the Register, is Vladislav Vladev 36, a native of Sofia.

On December 11 2009, two Bulgarian skimmers, Krasimir Damyanov (25) and Deyan Dimitrov Iliev (22), were sentenced to two years and four months' imprisonment after admitting a charge of providing false information and 10 computer crime charges, the Christchurch Court News said on December 11 2009.

As a consequence of their activities, two banks had to re-issue 4736 cards to their customers at a cost of 130 000 New Zealand dollars.  Repairs to their machines cost 18 000 dollars.

In July 2009, police in the US apprehended a 34-year-old thought to be a member of a Bulgarian-run skimming gang. The scam was discovered by staff of Wachovia Bank and Bank of America.

Earlier that month, a Bulgarian-based criminal group was said to have been behind a similar scam involving ATM machines in Australia's Queensland Gold Coast. Reportedly, at least 80 000 Australian dollars were siphoned from bank accounts in an international card-skimming operation that Australian authorities believe originated in Bulgaria.

In April 2008, US police in Miami Beach busted a ring of Bulgarian nationals accused of planting skimmers on ATMs in the area over a two-year period. The gang allegedly installed pinhole cameras on the ceiling of the ATM to record the clients' PIN and used stolen data to withdraw more than $160 000 from customers' accounts in a fortnight.