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A joint city and federal task force is targeting thieves who use skimming devices to steal bank information from ATMs ahead of the FIFA World Cup Final and celebrations for America’s 250th birthday.
NYPD Det. James Lilla, of the regional Financial Crimes Task Force, said his team has been “upping our operations” to combat the thefts and help the tourists and locals.
“You have the influx of people coming in for FIFA,” he said. “We’re going to be out there informing people and seeing if we can develop leads on suspects who are doing the installments.”
Comprised of the Secret Service and other federal and local agencies, the task force hits stores across the city looking for the devices, investigates when the thefts are reported, and tries to educate business owners and potential victims, Lilla said.
The thieves — roughly 95% of whom are from Eastern Europe — use skimmers that are inserted into ATMs or point of purchase machines at stores to steal banking information that can then be added to gift cards and used to withdraw cash from ATMs, he said.
“In order to get into your savings, checking account, EBT account you need a PIN number,” he said. “So that’s where the other device comes in.”
The “PIN capture device” is a tiny pin hole camera that records as a customer enters their PIN on a machine’s pad.
The crooks can also use a “PIN pad striker,” which captures the PIN as a person enters it and stores it on a tiny motherboard.
The scammers can also use a “shimmer card” to get data from a chip, including PIN numbers, and then transmit the information to the crooks via Bluetooth wireless technology, Lilla said.
Victims ranged from food stamp clients who have their benefits stolen to those who lost “well over a million dollars” in the scams, he said.
“Every bank is hit throughout the entire city, from the Upper East Side all the way down to Brownsville,” he said.
ATMs and point of sale terminals aren’t the only places crooks can steal data. Lately, they’ve been targeting the city subway system’s OMNY vending machines, police said.
“This is a crime that knows no bounds and it affects people from every walk of life, all the way from millionaires to people on EBT,” said Sgt. Matt Doherty, taskforce boss.
“When we see large events, we know that our criminals are going to try to exploit this opportunity knowing that there are going to be millions of people here celebrating.”
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