Tuesday, April 21, 2009
News Consumerist: Atlanta Bank of America ATM had 'card skimmer'
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 8:33 PM
This is wonderful, especially because your humble pixel-stained wretch does most of his banking at this very location!
Consumer advocate blog Consumerist says a "card skimmer" — a device scammers attach onto ATMs which reads and stores your personal information — was found on a ATM at the bank's Ponce de Leon Avenue and Frederica Street location.
Here's what Consumerist reader "Kelly" wrote to the blog:
The location was the corner of Ponce de Leon and Frederica in Atlanta. There are two ATMs at the location, one in the front and one in the back. The ATM that had the skimmer on it was the ATM in the back. When I discovered it, I was so surprised that I didn't think to call the number on the ATM, I called the main customer support number instead (the call was around 5:12 pm saturday).The put me on hold for a bit and when they came back on they asked me for the location and time of discovery, and they asked me to give the skimmer to the police.
When I flagged down a police officer, he gave me the distinct impression that I was to give it to the bank so that they could "conduct an internal investigation."
I just thought it was funny that the bank didn't seem to want the device, and neither did the cops. So here I am, left with an illegal card skimmer with a whole bunch of strangers' card data on it. I just want to get rid of it!
We've sent an email to BofA's newsroom for comment, as no phone number was listed.
(H/T to @lainshakespeare from The Wren's Nest)
Comments (4)
Showing 1-4 of 4
GREETINGS OF THE DAY TO THOMAS. I AM THE WIDOW OF ZAMBIA REPUBLIC BANK CEO WANTU TAKYOKASH. GIVE ME YOUR BANK OF AMERICA ACCOUNT NUMBER AND PIN AND I SHALL INVESTIGATE THIS MOST SERIOUS OF MATTERS ON YOUR BEHALF. YOU SHOULD OBSERVE UTMOST CONFIDENTIALITY AND REST ASSURED THIS TRANSACTION WOULD BE MOST PROFITABLE FOR BOTH OF US.
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Please I stay in Nigerian, How can I transfer some money into your ATM Card over there. Thanks, Rose.
Good Afternoon I can build these models of skimmer : Wincor Nixdorf, Diebold Opteva and NCR,devices will be made and will scale banks where you have real color will be located.These devices are designed in three versions one USB ,GSM Bluetooth (wireless )is more expensive Model usb -1800 $ Model bluetooth -2300 $ Model gsm -2800 $ The device comes with user instructions and a CD with software.This data can be saved / loaded as text files by using the "Load" and "Save" buttons Now select the track, you want to write the data to (Destination), and select the reference track you have formatted in Step 1. If you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you !
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