LITTLE ROCK — Almost 50 cases likely involving debit-card “skimming” have been reported to the Conway Police Department in the past three days, a detective said Thursday.
Skimming involves illegally attaching an electronic device to an ATM or a point-of-sale machine where customers swipe their cards and type in their personal identification numbers, or PINs. The device records and stores the numbers.
In the Conway cases, officials believe that whoever planted a device retrieved the numbers, printed them on a strip on the back of blank cards, swiped the cards at ATMs and typed in the PIN to withdraw money.
Detective Chris Mitchell of the Conway police said the department has received cases numbering in “the high 40s” of people noticing unauthorized withdrawals from their accounts, which are spread among seven Conway banks.
“What people are noticing is there’s ATM withdrawals that they didn’t make, and they’re wondering how that’s happened, because they actually have their cards in their possession,” Mitchell said.
Most of the withdrawals were for $300 or $500, the daily ATM limit at many banks, he said. The withdrawals span June 15 to Wednesday, Mitchell said.
While Mitchell believes the numbers were obtained at a location in Conway, he said the withdrawals happened at bank ATMs in Little Rock and North Little Rock, including machines in the Heights, Indian Hills and downtown areas.
The department has “several different suspects” - white men in their 20s - on videos from security cameras at ATMs. No vehicles are in view, Mitchell said.
The men “carry these one shoulder satchels with them,” Mitchell said. “That’s what they use to carry their money with, plus all the credit card info.”
Besides skimming, Mitchell said he could think of only one other possibility for the withdrawals.
It’s possible that hackers could’ve struck seven banks, but, Mitchell said, “the chances of having seven banks hacked in the last 14 days is nearly impossible.”
While skimming is a relatively well-known practice worldwide, it’s rare in Conway, Mitchell said. A financial crimes detective there for 14years, Mitchell said that if skimming is involved, it’s only the second occurrence he’s encountered.
David Druey, president of Centennial Bank, where customers were among those reporting unauthorized withdrawals, said this is the only time he knows of that “this type of scam has occurred for any of our customers.”
Druey said other Conway banks have told him they have had a similar number of cases.
Centennial’s policy, he said, is to urge customers who notice unauthorized withdrawals to fill out police reports.
Business, Pages 29 on 07/01/2011