A new 'look' for ATM card theft

[KiwiCoromandel]

Police in Tokyo are finding broadcast capable mini-cameras hidden at automatic teller machines, set to record PIN and other details during transactions.

According to Kyodo News, the scam came to light following the arrest of a man for possessing a utility knife at a UFJ bank ATM area in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward.

The report does not make clear what law was broken by carrying a utility knife but police also found that the man was carrying a receiver of some unspecified sort, on which was an image of the hands of an ATM user.

The man told police he had been hired by an unknown person to install minicams at ATMs.

Earlier in the week, UFJ Bank had reported finding minicams installed at more than 10 of its ATMs around Tokyo, so police may have been watching for the man -- or someone like him.

There was no minicam found at the bank branch involved in the arrest.

But the scam goes all the way back to September, the bank disclosed, when a security guard found a transmission-capable minicam inside a credit card sized box at an ATM.

Cryptically, Kyodo reported that the bank also discovered devices for receiving images at more than 10 locations in Tokyo, Saitama and Chiba prefectures, but no cameras had been found in those places -- despite ATM surveillance footage that showed cameras being installed.

source:NBR