Devices to skim payment card information have become a big problem, whether they are portable devices used by dishonest employees at restaurants, PIN pads replaced at merchants, or devices mounted on ATM machines.Many of the devices used recently -- use wireless technology -- and the card details are transmitted to fraudsters, normally sitting in a vehicle with a laptop.
The San Diego Regional Fraud Task Force is hot on the trail of two suspects, photographed using some of the cloned cards. Cloned cards are counterfeit devices made with the information skimmed from legitimate (credit/debit) payment cards.
Unfortunately, most of the equipment to do this, can be purchased, legally. Some of this equipment is even being sold over the Internet. Loose controls on the sale of this technology -- enables a lot of criminal activity, makes it harder for law enforcement to investigate -- and a lot of people are being victimized by it.
SignOnSanDiego.com reports:
The pictures of the current people of interest in this case are featured above (to the left).Police are warning ATM users that scammers are using high-tech devices to steal their bank account information, including debit and credit cards numbers and personal identification codes.
Police have released photos taken from surveillance video of two suspects. Anyone with information about either man is asked to call the task force at (619) 744-2534 or the U.S. Secret Service at (619) 557-5640.
I did a post with some interesting pictures of an ATM skimming device, which are pretty educational, can be seen, here.
For other articles about payment card skimming, click here.
SignOnSanDiego.com story, here.
A lot of the skimming in the United States seems to be tied into Armenian organized crime. Glendale, which is a couple of hours North of San Diego, seems to be where a lot of this activity originates.
Maybe someone should post these pictures in the Glendale area?
Skimming device discovered at a gas (petrol) station in the United Kingdom (Courtesy of Flickr). The expression on the employee's face is worth a thousand words.
1 comment:
This is the kind of thing that can only be prevented by educating the public. Once the general public knows what to look for, they should be able to avoid this. Another idea is to install a low-range radio-wave jammer to prevent radio signals from leaving the immediate area around an ATM. Installed within an ATM and giving off a 5 foot radius buzz, it should be enough to keep a wireless signal with data from sending to a car.
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