Saugus police involved in arrest of bank scam suspect

SAUGUS – Saugus, Quincy and Milton police helped the Norfolk District Attorney’s office nab a Bulgarian man charged with scamming bank customers across the state.Ivaylo Todorov Hristov, 28, who is now a Canadian citizen living in Ontario, was arrested on Wednesday night and pleaded innocent to scamming bank customers and has been ordered held on $1 million cash bail or $10 million surety in Quincy District Court.Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating said Hristov was part of a gang that performed an act of fraud called “skimming,” which involves snatching ATM card numbers with a “skimmer” device in the slot where a customer normally puts their card. Hristov also installed cameras near ATMs to record customers entering their PINs and then created fake ATM cards with at least two accomplices. Police in Chicago, where the scam may have started, have been tracking Hristov since November.”This is just unraveling now,” Norfolk District Attorney William Keating said. “I suspect there will be many victims and hundreds of thousands (stolen) at a minimum, maybe seven figures, before it’s done.”Hristov was apprehended Wednesday while leaving a Citizens Bank ATM on Hancock Street after illegally accessing customer accounts. One of the arresting officers was a Citizens Bank customer who had been scammed by Hristov’s scheme.Citizens Bank spokesman Mike Jones said the matter is under investigation and declined to say how many people were affected by the scam. No suspected accomplices have been arrested.