Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : 5 Arrested in Electronic Scheme to Steal Cellular Phone Service : Technology: Advanced computer equipment was used to bilk telephone users and also to reprogram plastic ID cards, deputies say.

SANTA CLARITA — Five people have been arrested on suspicion of stealing a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of cellular phone service by using the most sophisticated equipment ever seen by county prosecutors, authorities said Monday.

The suspects used three scanner-like systems to steal cellular phone numbers and their access codes from nearby users, said Deputy Dist. Atty. William Clark. Authorities said the numbers were programmed into stolen cellular phones, which where then sold to underground users, such as drug dealers.

“What they had is a machine that is scary,” Clark said, one able to detect and record numbers and their accompanying codes when the rightful owners used their phones, “grabbing” them out of the air.

“The machine they had was almost completely self-contained, and it would grab phone numbers almost immediately, and it would grab lots of numbers.”

Authorities said about $250,000 in stolen calls have been detected so far, and tens of thousands of dollars more might still be undetected.

Stealing the numbers from the airwaves, known as “cloning” cellular phones, is an increasingly common scheme some law enforcement officials have called “the crime of the future.” The electronic thieves are often able to ring up thousands of dollars worth of calls before legitimate users detect the fraud on their bills.

Clark said gathering the numbers is typically a slow process that requires a person to approach a legitimate user, but the new machines were able to steal about 30 numbers an hour.

The suspects also stole an estimated $25,000 more by using machines capable of electronically turning any plastic card with a magnetic strip into a duplicate of a credit card, said Lt. Barbara Persten of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station. She said those cards could then be used at gas stations and automated teller machines.

Nobody else would know that the thieves might be using “an AAA card or a Blue Cross card,” she said.

A tip from an unidentified informant led Santa Clarita deputies to three San Fernando Valley homes on March 28 and 29, Persten said. More than 150 cellular phones, computers, cloning machines and other items were discovered.

The computers were used to store an extensive list of cellular phone and credit card numbers stolen from legitimate users, Persten said.

Arrested were Vage Patatanyan, 25, of Northridge; Lana Leznik, 25, of Northridge; David Younesi, 23, of Woodland Hills, and Mehrdad Rad, 25, and his wife, Yadira, 24, both of Sherman Oaks. Each faces a maximum of seven to eight years in state prison.

All have pleaded not guilty to charges of telephone fraud and counterfeiting access cards. A preliminary hearing to determine if they will stand trial is scheduled June 13 in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

Patatanyan was in custody in lieu of $50,000 bail, while the others are free on bail or their own recognizance.