14 DAY TRIAL // A gang of nine fraudsters who installed skimming devices at ATMs in several Canadian cities were arrested and charged with multiple counts of fraud and theft of credit card data.
According to authorities, since September 2010 the gang has hit over 300 ATMs, or ABMs (Automatic Banking machines) as they are known in Canada, across Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Nova Scotia.
"These individuals attach devices to ABMs that enable the capture of debit card data and PINs during the legitimate use of banking products by unsuspecting victims," police said in a statement, according to ATM Marketplace.
"The devices are left in place from one to two hours and then the skimmed data is encoded onto their plastic cards to be used by the perpetrators to access victims' accounts without their knowledge," they explained.
The gang's members, eight men and one woman, were arrested by the Ontario Provincial Police Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau with the help of local police departments, following a two-month investigation. Eight search warrants were executed at locations in Toronto and four other cities.
The nine suspects were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, fraud, possession of instruments for use in forging credit cards, possession and use of credit card data, laundering proceeds of crime, possession of property obtained by crime, participation in a criminal organization and theft of credit card data.
"This is another example of the integrated efforts of police agencies working together to identify and capture those individuals responsible for this emerging crime trend," said Detective Sergeant Doug Cousens of the Identity Crime Unit of the Ontario Provincial Police.
"Identity theft costs Canadians hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Police continue to work with the banking industry to detect and prevent identity crimes," he added
Fortunately, Canada is well on its way to implement EMV, also known as the Chip and PIN system, which makes skimming attacks and card cloning very difficult. The number of ATM crimes within the European Union has constantly decreased in recent years due to widespread EMV adoption. A bit over half of Canadian ABMs currently support EMV.