3 restaurant servers charged with skimming cards

WASHINGTON (AP) - Three servers at a Cheesecake Factory in Washington are accused of stealing credit card numbers from diners at the restaurant.


Federal authorities say about $117,000 in fraudulent charges were made with the numbers in 2008 and 2009.

The U.S. Secret Service began investigating after Citibank reported many fraudulent charges on cards that had been used at the Cheesecake Factory in the Friendship Heights neighborhood.

Former restaurant employee Nicole Ward is accused of recruiting the other two servers. The three used electronic "skimmers" to capture the numbers and then would hand off the devices to people higher up in the scheme.