Police have made a dent in the ongoing epidemic of credit card fraud, but say there is still a long, long way to go.

The Gardendale Police Department today announced the arrests of two men whose fraud scheme reportedly targeted Gardendale among other cities.

Tymaree Conyers was arrested on June 3 in Atlanta and Raymond Walker was captured by the U.S. Marshal’s Task Force on May 30 in Columbia, S.C.

The suspects had a total of 28 outstanding felony warrants including charges for trafficking in stolen identities, identity theft and fraudulent use of a credit or debit card, according to police.

Gardendale Det. Chris Clark led the investigation, which originated in Gardendale and involved law enforcement from federal, state and local organizations.

Clark said the fraud loss in the greater Birmingham area in this case was $10,000 to $20,000.

He said the men were skimming individuals’ credit or debit cards at gas stations, restaurants and retail stores. (Card skimmers can be either small hand-held devices or can be installed inside gas pumps, ATMs or in card scanners inside retail stores. They record a card’s information when the user swipes the card.)

The suspects then sent the card information to Atlanta, where new cards were made with the stolen identities and information.

“Those are the cards they’re using to buy gift cards,” Clark said. “Then they were using the gift cards to buy Green Dot cards. It was just another layer to make tracking them a lot harder.”

Green Dot cards are prepaid MasterCard or Visa cards that can be used anywhere those cards are accepted. They are sold at numerous chain retail stores.

The fraudulent cards were made in Atlanta and distributed to various cities.

Clark said credit card fraud is a rapidly growing crime that will affect everyone.

“In the end, it’s just a matter of time until one way or another they get you,” he said. “We’re seeing more and more of this. I’ve got three cases on my desk right now that are identical, all in the city of Gardendale. It’s becoming a large problem.”

Clark has some advice to help people from becoming a victim of credit card fraud:

• Use cash when possible, even at gas stations.
• Or, get a low-limit gas card. Then the thieves will not have access to your personal account if the card information is skimmed.
• If using a card at a restaurant, politely tell the server you want to watch your card being processed; do not let it leave your sight.
• Monitor your credit score; catch fraudulent activity early.
• For debit cards, monitor your bank account often.