Australia: 'Forking' scam hits ATMs across Victoria

[webfact]

'Forking' scam hits ATMs
Steve Butcher

MELBOURNE: -- The "nightmare" scenario ATM customers most fear – having money "skimmed" from their accounts by card-reading devices – has intensified with new "forking" attacks unleashed across Victoria.

Called "cash trapping", offenders insert an implement similar to a fork to an ATM during a small withdrawal transaction that jams the cash dispenser.

Melbourne's County Court heard that the fork then "entraps" the money from a second transaction, usually the daily limit, after the ATM software records a dispensing error on the first one.

The "forking" scam was recently revealed to a judge who heard that four men had conspired to defraud a total of $184,920 from 248 mostly suburban Melbourne ATMs between December, 2012, and March, 2013, using "card skimming" and "forking" techniques.

Prosecutor Peter Pickering told Judge Liz Gaynor that police began Operation Whitebait after learning that illegal transactions were being committed on ATMs in Europe by Romanian nationals.

Mr Pickering said the response of investigators – from the Victoria Police fraud and extortion squad – followed allegations that similar transactions in Melbourne were targeting local banks and branches.

Full story: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/forking-scam-hits-atms-20140413-36lny.html

-- THE AGE 2014-04-14

[terryp]

forking h-ell

[Showbags]

Forking amazing.

Not sure how the fork this works though.

If the fork blocks the cash...how do they get their forkin money out....or is it cos the next customer walks away muttering....'fork me'

Edited April 14, 2014 by Showbags

[caughtintheact]

There's a better article with images at http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/11/beware-card-and-cash-trapping-at-the-atm/

[steven100]

for fork sake .... ya money's not even safe in a forking ATM anymore ....

[americaninbangkok]

There's a better article with images at http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/11/beware-card-and-cash-trapping-at-the-atm/

Better reporting than Thai Visa?! Impossible!

[MaxYakov]

for fork sake .... ya money's not even safe in a forking ATM anymore ....

Ahem, I that would it would not be safe in a "forked" ATM ...

[EyesWideOpen]

Guess with all the scammers in Thailand, we can look forward to the arrival of forking here.....

[Gsxrnz]

I see fork, forked, and forking aren't being forking well deleted.

Edited April 14, 2014 by Gsxrnz

[aussieruss]

Give it to your forken. RELOS to take care safe as a bank

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[whaleboneman]

We're safe in Thailand - no forks.

[copa8]

We're safe in Thailand - no forks.

maybe have to worry about spooning?

[Showbags]

chop stickin latest rage in thailand....

[slipperylobster]

Can I use a kitchen fork? Send more instructions.

[Scott]

A post with disguised profanity has been removed.

Please stay on topic.

[BlackJack]

use the fork young Luke Skywalker

[tingtongdingdong]

You call that a fork !! This is a fork ....