Evansville Police say man used embossing machine for credit card fraud

HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – A man from Akron, Ohio, was arrested and charged with forgery, fraud and organized theft in Evansville following an investigation that one detective says was not like any case he had seen before.

According to an affidavit, officers were dispatched to a store on Red Bank Road on October 6, 2023, following a report that three men were redeeming hundreds of lottery tickets. A store employee called the Hoosier Lottery to report the odd behavior, and were advised to call local law enforcement due to recent cases of suspects using stolen credit cards to purchase thousands of dollars in tickets and redeeming the fraudulently purchased winning tickets.

Officers at the scene placed Khymier Wright, 21, and two other suspects in custody. Police say one of the suspects was arrested on drug charges, but Wright and one other suspect was released pending further investigation.

On the same day, a gas station employee reported to authorities that three men used credit cards to purchase $7,070 in scratch-off lottery tickets. Police say surveillance video showed Wright and the other two men working together to purchase hundreds of lottery tickets. In the video, authorities say they swiped a credit card, which did not work, and then requested to manually enter a card number from their phone to make multiple purchases.

While searching a vehicle owned by one of the suspects, police say they found receipts from other large gas station purchases, large quantities of new vaping cartridges and a few credit cards. An affidavit says they also found a large credit card embossing machine.

"In 3 years of fraud investigations, I have never seen a suspect with a card embossing machine," a detective notes in the affidavit.

Police say the credit cards found with the suspects and inside the vehicle had been altered by erasing the numbers and names on them and embossing them with different names. A card reader was used to inspect the magnetic strips of the card, revealing that all the information had been erased.

Wright was arrested over a year later on November 13 and booked into the Vanderburgh County Jail. He is being held on a $2,500 bond.