Two men have been indicted in Manhattan on charges they operated a nationwide ATM skimming ring that defrauded bank customers out of more than $3 million, the U.S. attorney's office has announced.
Less than two weeks after the book giant revealed that PIN pads at dozens of its stores were compromised, four victims have filed lawsuits, alleging the company failed to properly protect their data and notify them in reasonable timeframe.
Fraudsters tampered with the point-of-sales devices at a number of locations to steal customers' debit and credit card information.
Two men each have been sentenced to 36 months in prison for withdrawing tens of thousands of dollars from ATMs with credit card information that was stolen from craft-store retail chain Michaels Stores.
A group of six has been charged in the latest scam to defraud bank customers through the use of skimming devices, a trend that has seen a noticeable uptick in arrests and prosecutions over the past year.
A third defendant accused of participating in an ATM skimming spree that hit banks in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island has pleaded guilty.
A 33-year-old Maryland man on Friday was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison for participating in an identity theft and credit card skimming scheme, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria, Va.
Seven Ontario residents have been charged for stealing in a massive ATM skimming operation.
Two men have been charged with applying a new take on ATM skimming fraud -- placing the data-stealing device on the card reader at the door, not on the actual cash machine.
A Romanian citizen, with an expired U.S. visa, has been arrested on charges of serving as the "installer" of skimming devices on some 40 ATMs in the New York City area.
A 21-year-old Connecticut woman on Tuesday pleaded guilty to participating in an ATM skimming operation between February and July, the U.S. attorney's office in Connecticut said.
As of Monday, at least 80 people were victimized by credit and debit card readers being tampered with.
Two of the three men accused of swiping the debit card credentials of 1,490 ATM users in Manhattan remain behind bars. The other defendant is at large.
The organized structure of a huge identity theft operation, based in New York, allowed members to make millions in profits.
Despite fresh guidance and quicker fraud detection, the FBI actively is investigating more than 400 cases of corporate bank account takeovers, an official told federal lawmakers last week. Gordon Snow, the FBI's assistant director of the cyber division, told a House Financial Services subcommittee that these cases, in which criminals initiate unauthorized Automated Clearing House and wire transfers from seized accounts belonging to mostly small and midsize businesses, have resulted in the attempted theft of more than $225 million and actual losses of around $85 million. In his remarks, Snow also discussed risks related to ATM skimming, mobile banking and supply chain compromise.
Mobile payment service startup Square has refuted claims made by a competitor that its card reader could easily be turned into a skimmer capable of stealing financial and personal information.
The group responsible for managing payment security rules has released version 3.0 of the PIN Transaction Security (PTS) standard. The new version replaces the PIN Entry Device (PED) standard in an effort to streamline point-of-sale security guidelines to also cover unattended payment terminals, such as fuel dispensers, and hardware security modules, which are nonuser facing devices used in PIN translations. The update "simplifies the testing process and eliminates overlap of documentation," according to the PCI Security Standards Council. The council also plans to release updates to its Payment Application Data Security Standard and flagship PCI Data Security Standard later this year. — DK
Eastern European gangs are systematically conducting well-organized skimming attacks against U.S. consumers and businesses, according to a Gartner analyst.
