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Man sought for trying to steal ATM PINs at North End bank
By adamg on Fri, 10/11/2013 - 8:22am
The Secret Service reports it is looking for this guy in connection with "skimmer" devices placed at ATMs at Century Bank branches at 275 Hanover St. in the North End and in Peabody on Sept. 18 and 19.
The devices, placed over the card slot on a machine, read the user's account number and PIN during a transaction - often through electronics that read the unencrypted account number from the car's magnetic strip and a tiny camera that transmits an image of the card holder's key strokes while entering his or her PIN.
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Comments
Map mess up or active criminal?
Adam - has this guy been active in Springfield, too? The map is showing a location on Hancock St. in Springfield, but I'm pretty sure that this street is not in Springfield's North End.
Fixed, thanks
My mind thought "Hanover" but my fingers typed "Hancock." Damn fingers!
Secret Service?
The Secret Service investigates ATM skimmers? I knew they investigate counterfeiting, but I always thought skimming was within the jurisdiction of the local police department.
I learned something today.
Financial security is a big concern of theirs:
http://www.secretservice.gov/investigations.shtml
Would you really trust a local police department to investigate fiscal matters? I get the feeling local police are "outgunned" when it comes to anything technology related.
well
they are outgunned in that these crimes go across several jurisdictions. the skimming occurs in one jurisdiction and the fraudulent credit card use occurs in another. Add to that, the credit card companies reimburse victims and move the expense to insurance and do not wish to get involved in these things. But the bigger issue is the multiple jurisdictions. when you have shootings in the city, can you really afford to send detectives to places all over the country to nail down these skimming cases?? also some of the charges occur outside of the US in Eastern European countries. Travel costs, legal issues and jurisdictional issues become overwhelming. Hence the Secret Service is better suited for this, and has the budget and manpower and Federal jurisdictional abilities.
it is not really about cops not knowing how to use computers
Why do these small-time
Why do these small-time thieves have more advanced technology than the ATM?
It's time to switch to ATM cards with encrypted smart chips, instead of unencrypted magstripes.
cost
switching all ATMs and other credit card readers at various businesses to chip technology... that has to be expensive
Then phase it in.
Then phase it in.
My bank recently replaced its ATMs. The only difference is that the new ones don't give $10 bills, and the buttons are flakier and don't always respond on the first press.
They could have included both a smart chip reader and a magstripe reader. Once enough people have cards with chips, they could turn off the magstripe feature.