SAN FRANCISCO POLICE ISSUE ATM FRAUD ALERT

By Adam Martin, Bay City News

January 25, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - The San Francisco Police Department has issued a security warning to users of automated teller machines after one such machine was found to have a device attached that recorded users' ATM card information.

Police officers discovered the device on Jan. 9 after a citizen called and reported seeing it on a Market Street ATM.

The device fits on the machine's card slot, where it reads the information encoded on the card's magnetic strip, Inspector Earl Wismer of the department's fraud detail said in an interview today.

In addition to the reading device, a camera had been installed inside a convex mirror, angled so it would record footage of customers' personal identification numbers.

"We have information that this device was seen on this machine on and off for several days. The earliest someone reported seeing it was around the 27th or 28th of December,'' Wismer said.

Once the ATM card information is recorded onto the device, Wismer said, the suspect removes the device, brings it home and downloads the information. The information then can be recorded onto any similarly sized plastic card with a magnetic strip, Wismer said. Driver's licenses, hotel keycards and other ATM or credit cards can all hold the information. The crook then uses the visually recorded PIN to drain the account.

The ATM where the device was found does have its own security camera, and investigators are currently reviewing footage from the camera, Wismer said. "We're talking a couple of weeks worth of tape. It's a labor-intensive investigation,'' he said.

In addition to reviewing the footage from the affected ATM, Wismer said investigators will ask the bank to inform them of when and where the illegally obtained information was used, so that they can review footage from security cameras at those locations.

Wismer reported that the ATM to which the device was attached is owned and operated by a major bank, but he would not say which one. Customers of other banks, he said, might get lulled into a "false sense of security'' if they thought the problem lay with only one institution.

Customers who think they might have been victims of this crime should closely review their bank statements and alert the bank to any suspect charges, Wismer said.

In addition, the Police Department urges bank customers to inspect their ATM machines before using them and to report anything unusual to the proprietor of the machine and to police.

So far, San Francisco police have only had reports of such a device at one ATM. Other, similar cases have been reported in other Bay Area cities and in Sacramento, according to the department.

Copyright © 2006 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.

####