Former Airline Worker Charged with Skimming Credit Card Information at San Jose Airport

A 49-year-old Concord woman has been arraigned on charges that she allegedly skimmed hundreds of credit card numbers from victims while working at San Jose International Airport. Two of the recent victims are from Union City.

Micheline Johnson, who worked as an American Airlines customer service agent, allegedly used 350 stolen credit card numbers to make thousands of dollars in fraudulent purchases over several years, said Tom Flattery, assistant district attorney for Santa Clara County.

"There are also victims from throughout the United States and other countries including India, Sweden and Mexico," Flattery said.  

Johnson was arraigned Feb. 3  in Santa Clara County Superior Court on a 66-count felony complaint charging grand theft, possession of stolen property and identity theft. The case was investigated by REACT, a Bay Area high-technology crimes and identity theft task force led by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. She was arrested on Jan. 27, after being suspended from her job at American Airlines when queries from law enforcement arose.

The district attorney charges that Johnson had been using her position at American Airlines for several years to skim customers’ credit card numbers and use those numbers on counterfeit credit cards to make purchases from Safeway stores in California, Nevada and Washington states. 

Safeway analysts linked Ms. Johnson to at least 2,800 separate transactions using 350 unique credit card numbers. Several victims report that their accounts were also used at other retailers. The Safeway transactions alone exceed $480,000, Flattery said.

The complaint represents 66 victims from around the Bay Area and Santa Cruz and Monterey counties who were available to go to trial, Flattery said. The 350 known victims are from all over the country and span the globe, he added.  

In the past year alone, Flattery counted four victims from Mountain View, three from Los Gatos, two each from Union City and Palo Alto, and one each from Campbell, Cupertino and Gilroy.

Ms. Johnson is currently in custody, being held on $1 million bail. She is due back in court on February 28. If convicted of all charges, she faces a maximum sentence of 48 years, 4 months prison.