Three girls in Manhattan, US are said to have ripped off dozens of single guys, picking them up at high-end nightclubs and pick pocketing their wallets and phones.
The trio are said to have targeted unsuspecting drunk men by offering them lifts or inviting them to after-hour parties, and then once the men were in the car they would take them to ATMs.
And while the men withdrew money they would sidle up to them, and once back in the car they would pinch their bankcards, and using pilfered PIN codes they would tap the victims' accounts.
According to the police, the three lured in as many as 50 victims, and one man ended up losing 5,000 dollars, while others lost their cellphones and BlackBerrys.
"They knew just who to look for," the New York Post quoted a detective as saying.
"Pretty much drunk guys looking to get from point A to point B. They're in a good mood and figure, 'Let me take a ride'," he said.
The three women, all in their 20s, were busted on September 7 after allegedly swiping 1,600 dollars from a lawyer they picked up near Lotus on West 14th Street.
The lawyer, a highly paid private equity attorney who lives on Sutton Place, said he met the woman as he sat on a curb smoking a cigarette at 4 a.m. at 423 W. 14th St.
"They drove up in a car with the windows down and said, 'Let's go to a party. Would you like to come with us?'" he recalled.
He got into their car and they drove to an ATM machine so he could get money, and two of the suspects, Tiffany Rasberry, 21, and Barbara Labady, 22, followed and watched as he punched in his number and withdrew cash.
"They started touching me to distract me. I didn't realize what was happening," he said.
After the group got back in the car, a third defendant, Subhanna Beyah, 21, pretended to feel sick, and when he got out to let her exit, the three drove off.
That's when he realized they'd snatched his ATM card.
Within 30 minutes, they'd withdrawn the money from his account. He called the cops, who searched the area, spotted the women, and arrested them.
Each has been charged with multiple counts of grand larceny and possession of stolen property.
One detective said the women viewed the scams as an alternative to turning tricks.
"They saw this as something where they tried to clean up their acts," he stated.
