Seven more reports have been filed to Madison police, in connection with a June ATM fraud incident at an Associated Bank branch near campus.
Offenders in these fraud cases have placed devices into the card slots of the machines and copy account details from the magnetic strips of customers’ debit and credit cards, according to a statement from Madison Police Department Public Information Officer Joel DeSpain.
In some cases, small cameras are attached to the machines, allowing the criminals to record personal identification numbers as they are being punched into the keypad. This information is then used to falsify cards, which enable the culprits to withdraw funds from the victims’ accounts.
Affected areas include ATMs at Associated Bank, as well as several branches of BMO Harris Bank and UW Credit Union.
Although investigations are still in process, police have estimated several hundred thousand dollars in losses. DeSpain said it is believed these crimes are being committed by people who do not live in the Madison area.
These incidents are not believed to be related to the credit card fraud cases near campus from the past month, UW-Madison Police Department spokesperson Marc Lovicott said.
In the incidents on campus, breaches in security resulted in the compromise of credit card information of customers at numerous businesses. Lovicott explained it is too early in the investigation to know who is responsible for this fraud or where they are facilitating these crimes from.
“In many cases, criminals aren’t even in the city in which the criminal activity is taking place,” Lovicott said. “They do a lot of their business overseas, which makes it really difficult to investigate and track.”
Lovicott also noted that ATM fraud cases are part of a larger problem.
“This is, unfortunately, an issue that isn’t going away anytime soon, because of the rampant fraud that exists throughout the world.”
