Miami Man Held in $1M ATM ‘Cashout Scheme’

Dean Emmanuel Colin, 26, of Miami, Fla., is locked up in federal custody in Rhode Island, accused of pulling off a high-stakes ATM ‘cashout scheme’ that spanned five states and netted nearly $1 million in stolen cash. Colin allegedly made repeated, large-scale withdrawals using fraudulent credit cards at bank ATMs in Warwick, R.I., and Seekonk, Mass., before being caught red-handed on live surveillance.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Patricia A. Sullivan ordered Colin detained following his initial appearance in Providence on charges of conspiracy to commit access device fraud and access device fraud. The arrest came May 23, 2019, after bank security flagged suspicious activity at a Seekonk ATM to the U.S. Secret Service. Agents watched live footage of Colin allegedly cycling through multiple cards, withdrawing stacks of cash in rapid succession. Seekonk Police moved in and took him into custody at the scene.

Investigators from the U.S. Secret Service and Warwick Police linked Colin to another spree just one day earlier—this time at a Warwick, R.I., ATM, where an individual matching his description pulled out more than $35,000 in fraudulent transactions. Surveillance tied him to at least 29 compromised American Express Platinum account numbers used across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey.

A ‘cashout scheme’ like this one relies on layers of criminal coordination. Hackers steal financial data—account numbers, PINs—and funnel it to operatives who encode the info onto dummy cards. These cards, often indistinguishable from real bank-issued ones, are then used to drain ATMs in quick, violent bursts. Colin, authorities allege, was on the ground executing that final, cash-grab phase.

At the time of his arrest, law enforcement executed court-authorized searches of a rental car Colin was driving and a hotel room in Foxboro, Mass. They seized $65,920 in cash, 11 magnetic-stripe cards, a card reader/writer with USB cable, rubber bands for bundling cash, two cellphones, a U.S. Post Office receipt from Warwick, and a boarding pass from Miami to Boston dated May 22, 2019—all in Colin’s name.

The takedown was announced by U.S. Attorney Aaron L. Weisman, Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Stephen Marks, Seekonk Police Chief Frank John, and Warwick Police Chief Colonel Rick Rathbun. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. McAdams. As of now, Colin faces federal charges; a criminal complaint has been filed. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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