Six people are accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a credit-card scam that recruited fast-food workers to skim card numbers with an electronic reading device.

Central Ohio law officers and the Secret Service hope they put an end to the scheme by arresting the six yesterday and raiding two Columbus houses — at 1870 Hampstead Dr. and 1544 Kemper Rd., both on the North Side.

Seth Nyamekye, 30; Prince Dahome, 20; Kwabena M. Bonsu, 25; and Jaimee M. Mukama, 26, were arrested at the Hampstead Drive address. Jacques GK Daboni, 22, and Ayeshia A. Johnson, 19, were arrested in the Kemper Road house.

The six people are charged with felony theft or conspiracy to commit theft, said Lt. Paul Scowden of the Westerville police. They are immigrants from the African countries of Rwanda, Ghana and Guinea and are free while authorities decide whether to prosecute them in state or federal court, Scowden said.

He also said that more-serious charges are expected once investigators sift through the evidence seized from the two houses, including computers, gift cards, encoders and electronic reading devices known as “skimmers.”

Westerville police learned of the scam in October through reports from local businesses.

“We noticed that several customers were compromised in certain locations,” Scowden said.

The investigation found that fast-food workers would be given a few dollars for every credit-card number they skimmed with an electronic reading device. When the suspects got the numbers, they would use an encoder to imprint them on the black strip of a gift card. They would then use the card.

“I can’t give you an actual figure, but I’m pretty confident we’re talking in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Scowden said.

The Franklin County and Delaware County sheriff’s offices and Columbus, Delaware and Powell police all participated in the investigation.