Equipment used for stealing ATM card information was discovered last Saturday evening at the TD Canada Trust branch in Elmira.
Police were contacted by a man who noticed something suspicious while visiting the bank Mar. 20.
A representative from the bank later contacted police to report the discovery of cameras that had been set up in the lobby of the bank in order to record customers keying in their PIN numbers.
“It does seem as though someone had tampered with the ATM at the Elmira location,” said Kelly Hechler, a spokesperson for TD Canada Trust. “But the good news is that nobody’s information was compromised.”
It was fortunate that the customer noticed the fraudulent equipment as soon as he did, then reported it, added Hechler.
“If you are at a bank machine or a store using a bank terminal and something doesn’t look right or feel right, it’s good to follow your instincts and either report it or go use a different machine.”
Hechler explained that during regular banking hours, the machines are checked frequently to ensure that they are in good working order and have not been tampered with, but after business hours is a bit more difficult to manage. After more thoroughly checking the machine, members of staff at the local bank were able to determine that no card information was successfully taken. However, in order to be completely sure, police are investigating the situation and advising people who used the ATM at that location on Mar. 20 to make sure their accounts were not tampered with.
This type of fraud is on the rise in Canada, explained Hechler, but there are ways to protect yourself from a similar incident. The first tactic is to always protect your PIN when entering it at an ATM. Without knowing the PIN, a thief cannot access the bank account. In addition, bank cards are now being made with ‘chip technology’ – a small gold square on the front of debit cards and is a unique identifier for each individual card – that will reduce the risk of this type of fraud.
