Someone's been skimming card and pin numbers from a local ATM.

Police in Bellingham are warning residents of bank fraud after an illegal card-reading device was reported at an ATM in a busy shopping center Friday.

I can't tell too much from the description in the article, but it sounds as if the card reader was attached to the front of the ATM. Which means, naturally... if you ever see an ATM and it doesn't look quite right - go find another one! There shouldn't be anything extra on the front of the machine - period.

Bothersome factors.

There are a couple of things that really bother me about this story. It could be the way it's written and edited or it could be that the reporter didn't get all the information, or they could be true - which is just annoying and scary all at once.

"As far as we know, it is safe (to use). Electronics are pretty sophisticated and we don't know what kind of equipment they have and we are not sure about the equipment that they were using yet," Perry said

Okay - so they don't know how it was done... but it's safe... What planet does this guy live on? Was it well enough concealed that you literally CAN'T detect it? I don't think so because apparently people noticed.

Bellingham police and Bank of America received multiple complaints that a skimming device had been placed at the location...

Obviously it was noticeable. But for someone to say "we don't know how they did it, but we think you're safe" seems to be more than a bit contradictory.

The other thing...

Although it received reports from customers of a skimming device at the location, Bank of America had no comment about why the ATM was not shut down until the Bellingham police got involved.

Once again we have no timeline. Was it weeks? days? hours? I can understand not being able to immediately get someone out there to shut it down before a couple of hours have passed (I don't know the procedures but I would think not just anyone can do it). Plus the machine may not be near a branch office. If it was longer than a couple of hours OR if Bank of America personnel actually serviced the machine while the skimmer was attached - and yet continued to let it operate - that is outrageous. But it's interesting that we are left with the vague notion that Bank of America was being negligent - yet there is no timeline of events to show us that the accusation is true.

Gotta say - slapdash reporting like this is just annoying. About the only thing we learn from the story... watch out where you stick your card.

Posted by: Teresa in Money, Money at 12:10 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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