ATM Scam on Staten Island Nets Crooks $500K

The NYPD is calling on the public to help them track down a ring of thieves who used ATMs at two Sovereign Bank branches on Staten Island to rob customers of roughly half a million dollars. Police have released surveillance photos of three suspects who installed "skimmers" on the banks' ATM machines that grabbed data from the magnetic strips on the back of bank cards. They also attached tiny cameras in the lighted signs over the ATMs that videotaped customers' PINs. The suspects were then able to transfer that info onto a blank card and withdraw money from the victims' accounts. The bank has refunded customers, but Deputy Inspector Gregory Antonsen tells the Daily News that New Yorkers should monitor their accounts closely: "This crew is sophisticated. And they are coming up with new ways to steal your identity every day." Anyone ready to snitch can call Crime stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS or submit their tips online via the Crime stoppers Web site. ATM skimming is an ongoing problem for banks and their customers; in 2006 thieves scored $100,000 from 50 Washington Mutual accounts.

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By John Del Signore in News on May 11, 2009 3:02 PM

Comments [rss]

greeen

these MFers took 4 grand from my accounts 2 years ago. It is so stupid that there is all this technology and no obvious way to prevent this? come on people!

The Edge

What I don't get is why these douches spend all this time, money (these machines aren't cheap), and effort into stealing when they could make more with a REAL job.

jaycjay

About $8,000 for a setup that will send card info to you automatically via SMS. Can handle over 1,800 cards before the lithium-ion battery runs out.

Of course, using SMS text messaging means you don't have to do much work chasing all your machines down and manually downloading data; you just have to pay someone to place them on a few machines and sit back (anyplace in the world where there is GSM cell service) and let the card info accumulate. After that, a few hours labor to encode a batch of blank cards (or of course, just sell the data to someone else who wants to do that dirty work), and presto: tens of thousands of dollars in the bank.