Atm Card Scanners Found In Patong

[thaigerd]

From the PHUKET GAZETTE:

PATONG: Police are warning credit card and bank card holders to exercise caution when using ATMs and other “swipe” machines in Patong after an ATM on Soi Bangla was found fitted with devices capable of recording card data and pin numbers.

Kathu Police Superintendent Col Grissak Songmoonnark told the Gazette that Patong police received a call from an English tourist about 11 pm Friday after he had problems using his credit card to withdraw cash from an ATM on Soi Bangla.

Col Grissak said that after the tourist removed his cash from the machine, he found it difficult to remove his card because it was stuck in the insert hole.

“He then tried to force his card out and he was surprised when a fitting glued over the insert hole came loose,” Col Grissak said.

He explained that the ATM had two devices fitted to it. Glued over the insert hole was a scanning device to extract card data as the card was inserted into the ATM, and an extra keypad was fitted over the ATM’s original keypad so that PIN numbers could be recorded as they were entered by unsuspecting users.

“Both devices look like the real ones and they record information from cards used at those ATM machines,” Col Grissak explained.

Since the discovery that the Krung Sri Bank (Bank of Ayudhya) ATM had been tampered with, Kathu police officers have been ordered to check on every ATM in Patong, Col Grissak said, as he expects that the Soi Bangla ATM was not the only one in Patong fitted with a scanning device.

“We found another machine not far from the first one that also had scanning devices fitted to it,” he said.

“The information recorded is transferred to a computer and then used to make fake credit cards, which are used in many ways, such as buying things over the Internet,” Col Grissak said, adding that major banks have been alerted to the discovery.

Police have received only one complaint about dodgy ATMs, Col Grissak said. “If the information from their credit cards is copied, it can cause them a lot of harm, but so far we have yet to receive complaints from any other tourists about it,” he said.

Col Grissak, a former high-ranking Tourist Police officer in Bangkok, said, “In my experience, gangs try to steal credit card information in tourism areas, such as Bangkok, Pattaya and Samui, but this is the first time we have found this in Phuket.”

Although police in Phuket have yet to catch the culprits responsible for refitting the Patong ATMs, Col Grissak said that a credit card gang was arrested yesterday morning in Bangkok.

“We also caught a gang from Sri Lanka at the beginning of this year. They used fake credit cards to buy things. The same gang operated in Phuket, too,” he said.

[donna]

i rarely use atm's in patong, and usually use the ones in Central, but having said that a friend of mine had over 200,000 taken from his account after such a scam in Central too.

so where are we safe?

i hope they catch the pricks and .... ooh, i dont know.... hurt them?

[chiang mai]

i rarely use atm's in patong, and usually use the ones in Central, but having said that a friend of mine had over 200,000 taken from his account after such a scam in Central too.

so where are we safe?

i hope they catch the pricks and .... ooh, i dont know.... hurt them?

Donna, how uncharacteristic of you, why not say how you really feel about the perpetrators!

[donna]

i did try to be nice, but they dont really deserve it do they?

perhaps i should have said 'cut off their goolies and feed them to the sharks'?

[NBT TV Phuket]

MiniVDO: Police warn people of being cheated by online E-banking.

To see or download mini-video, go to http://www.thaisnews.com/news_detail.php?newsid=214625

Kathu Police Superintendent Police Colonel Kritsak Song-moon-nark explained the crime by stating that criminals would send emails to bank customers with a link to a fake website created by the culprit. Then the program would tell the client user to put in a 13 digit ID card number and password to transfer money. He advised those who receive such email to contact their bank. Even though the crime occurred in Bangkok, he said police are keeping a close monitor in Phuket as it is a tourist and business centre.

He also revealed the progress on a crime case last week when a thief put in equipment to copy ATM card information in a bank’s cash machine on Soi Bangla in Patong Beach, where police have carried out finger print traces.

fromAndaman News TV11 (VHF dial) 8.30am + maybe FM90.5 Radio Thailand 6pm, both broadcast from Phuket City to Phang Nga, Krabi & Phuket provinces, FM108 Mazz Radio 7.30pm in Phuket & Phuket Cable TV Channel 1 at 7/11pm, Friday 31 August 2007 & www.Thaisnews.com

[troubledthai]

Putting an electronic device on the atm machine is taking it to an other level.

Actually, quite clever .... although I am sure those loosing thousands will not be so impressed.