By Megan V. Winslow
A rise in debit card skimming is prompting local law enforcement officials to urge vigilance.
In the past three weeks, Los Altos Police Department officers have arrested three individuals accused of pilfering information and/or cash from ATMs. Since June 29, Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office deputies have arrested at least four people in Cupertino they suspect committed similar crimes. And Mountain View Police Department detectives are currently investigating two cases related to a single ATM gaining notoriety for nefarious activity.
Capt. Rich Urena of the Sheriff’s Office warned Los Altos Hills residents about the crime’s prevalence during the town’s last virtual “Coffee with the Sheriff” meeting, in July.
“A lot of law enforcement agencies around us, in the whole region, are working together on this,” Urena said. “But it is something that kind of comes in waves. We see it for a while and then it goes away and then it comes back a year or two later. … In the last, I don’t know, probably two months is when we’ve seen a surge in these cases in the region.”
Skimming typically involves the installation of illegal card readers over legitimate ones contained within point-of-sale terminals. Sometimes the readers are used in conjunction with fake keypads or with hidden pinhole cameras that record the pin number sequence entered. The information collected is stored on an electronic device or transmitted wirelessly to a nearby computer.
ATM and gas pump terminals are particularly vulnerable, according to the FBI.
Statewide theft
While skimming is not unique to Bank of America locations, the company’s ATMs have proven a frequent target of thieves operating in California this year. The recent Los Altos Police Department cases involve Bank of America ATMs, as do cases in Thousand Oaks, Victorville and Apple Valley from earlier this year.
In July, a technician discovered a skimming device had siphoned card numbers and PINs from a South Lake Tahoe Bank of America ATM for more than two weeks, the Sacramento Bee reported…
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