Students Arrested for Stealing Australian, US Credit Cards to Pay Their Tuition

Students Arrested for Stealing Australian, US Credit Cards to Pay Their Tuition
A police car in a file photo. Mira Oberman/AFP/Getty Images
AAP
By AAP
Updated:

U.S. authorities have arrested two students accused of attempting to pay their tuition at the University of New Hampshire with stolen Australian and U.S. credit cards.

Chunyang Li, 20, and Chenghan Wang, 23, had their passports seized after being charged with nine felony counts including fraudulent use of a credit card.

University of New Hampshire police chief Paul Dean said his investigators were alerted by the university after the men tried to pay for their tuition with at least 10 different credit cards from different victims.

The stolen cards were from victims in Australia, California, Texas, Florida, Virginia, New Jersey and Wisconsin.

“We are finding that more and more on campus that people’s identities have been stolen and fraudulently used and I think this is something that is happening nationwide and cyber security of your own identity, credit cards, and personal information should be everyone’s top priority,” Chief Dean told New Hampshire TV station WMUR.

The two men were arrested on May 16 and were released on bail.

To ensure that they don’t try to leave the country, their passports were confiscated, authorities said according to WMUR.