OCPD: 3 Suspects Using Stolen Credit Card Numbers Written On Toilet Paper

An elaborate credit card crime has caught the attention of metro police. They're asking for help identifying at least three people involved. 

Police say the suspects managed to get away with at least $14,000 in merchandise using toilet paper.

“They would have a list, they would come in, and it was written on a roll of toilet paper,” said Oklahoma City Police MSgt. Gary Knight.

On that toilet paper, police said, a series of credit card numbers were written down.

“They would unroll the toilet paper with all these numbers and use those to purchase lottery tickets,” said MSgt. Knight.    

But police said they weren't just any numbers.

“As it turns out, that’s a list of stolen numbers, many of which that had not been issued to customers yet,” said Knight.                               

Unsure of how they did it, police said the trio, caught on surveillance video, managed to figure out the algorithm used by banks to generate credit cards.

“Apparently they were stolen for future numbers that were going to be issued by a bank in the form of a credit card,” said MSgt. Knight. 

Since May 2019, armed with those numbers, police said the suspects entered this E-Z- Mart multiple times a day, buying hundreds of dollars in lotto tickets, food and drinks.

“A group of people have been coming into a convenience store with a list of credit card numbers and using that list instead of a physical credit card,” said MSgt. Knight.      

Police said they managed to pull off the bizarre crime for months, going undetected simply by asking the sales associate to manually enter in the credit card, because its magnetic strip had been damaged.

“They certainly didn’t do anything to prevent this from happening,” said MSgt. Knight.

Police said one of the suspects accidentally pocket dialed the store and was overheard bragging about the scam, and how he had ripped off multiple businesses.

No arrests have been made.