7 sentenced in Chicago credit card scam

The Illinois attorney general’s office says seven people have been sentenced after pleading guilty to illegally obtaining personal banking information of visitors to Chicago-area restaurants and other tourist attractions.

In a news release Wednesday, the office says the sentences range from six years in state prison to probation.

The office says the ringleader of the scheme, Joseph Woods, paid other defendants who were employees of the attractions and restaurants to skim credit card information. They used a small credit card he and another defendant provided to them.

The release says that the employees swiped about 175 credit cards through the devices, which allowed Woods to make counterfeit credit cards that he and others used to rack up thousands of dollars in charges.