An indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Providence last week charges seven individuals with allegedly participating in a “card cracking” scheme, with the intent of defrauding banks, including Massachusetts institutions, of approximately $1 million.

In a “card cracking” scheme, a group of people create counterfeit checks and recruit complicit bank account holders who allow use of their bank accounts to deposit the bogus checks and the use of their ATM cards to withdraw funds prior to the bank determining that the checks are counterfeit.

The indictment charges Stefan C. Gaye, 27; Edmilson A. Rodrigues, 20; Nestor Concepcion, 23; Luis Rodriguez, 19; Terrell Witherspoon, 23 and Leslie Susana, 20, all of Providence, with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud. Shaun Dennis, 25, of Providence, is also charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

The members of the conspiracy allegedly solicited individuals with access to legitimate business and public agency checks to photograph the checks and send them to a counterfeiter. The information was used to create counterfeit checks. It is alleged that members of the conspiracy then solicited others via social media, often times college students, to allow the bogus checks be deposited into their bank accounts. Using ATM cards belonging to the account holders, either members of the conspiracy or, at times the actual account holders, under the supervision of members of the conspiracy, would attempt to withdraw cash from the accounts prior to the bank determining that the deposited checks were counterfeit.

It is alleged that over the past six years, members of the conspiracy created and deposited in banks in Rhode Island and Massachusetts approximately $1 million worth of bogus checks.

Gaye and Witherspoon have been arrested and arraigned in U.S. District Court. Concepcion, Rodriguez and Dennis are in jail on unrelated charges and will be appear in U.S. District Court for arraignment on May 6. Arrest warrants have been issued for Rodrigues and Susana.