Credit Card Skimming

[landy]

Hi all,
I saw a funny thing today. I was in Brookside shopping centre with Kerry. We where sitting at Gloria Jeans and had a clear view of the Westpac ATM. I sat and watched a guy who appeared to be dressed in 'normal clothes' not the uniform of a service tech or security guard. Anyway he removed the outer trim of the ATM and took photos of the top insides of the machine with an IPad. When he had finished that he replaced the trim and then took out an iPhone and while wearing ear phones started pressing buttons and I thought this was very strange. No body seemed to notice what he was doing, or didn't care. I walked over and asked what he was doing and he casually said he was a service technician. I asked to see some ID but he said he didn't have any. He seemed quite casual. Now I don't know if its just my suspicious nature but I just didn't like what I saw and reported it to the staff at the commonwealth bank.
I'm convinced he was installing a skimming device but he was just so casual about it.
Anyway, point is be very careful at the ATMs. You just might get ripped off.

Cheers,

[snowbound]

ruddy suspicious IMO too. Honestly, if he had the balls to do it in broad daylight in a busy mall then he would have been prepared for a challenge. No ID, no way om earth anyone is going to be authorised to work on an ATM, on their own, no uniform no ID. Lucky you reported it. I overheard a conversation at a bank regarding a local independent servo, I forget the exact conversation in regard to dodgy card going-ons, but the teller was disinterested in what the customer was saying, but I heard enough to never go to that servo again!

[DiscoStew]

They probably count on the fact that many people are too lethargic to bother challenging or reporting it. So as a regular Brookside shopper, thanks for doing that.

[Basil135]

Most ATM service techs will be accompanied by an armed security guard or 2.

Even thou the cassettes are within a second safe inside the machine, which the tech cant access, the threat that someone will try to force them to open the safe, is great.

I would suggest that your instincts were correct, and that even if they hadn't installed a skimmer, he was getting ready to.

No service tech would need to take photos of a machine that they work on every day. There is no point.

[phibbzy]

Reminds me of a previous job working as a bonafide ATM/EFTPOS tech for a contractor. We did CBA, NAB, WESTPAC gear just to name a few and it was only one slice of the pie that was my daily task set.

Why would he need to show you ID? :confused::confused: If I thought you didn't fit the bill for someone who should be driving, would it be right for me to ask you to see your drivers license? Fair play, I wouldn't show you my ID either.

Why would you report possible tampering of a WESTPAC ATM to the Commonwealth bank?

We didn't wear uniforms, nor did we have ID on us 99% of the time. It was just black slacks and a shirt. Maybe a murmur of discontent if we wore our favorite T shirt 2 days in a row. When working internally on ATM's we had a security guard present but only because the crap inside was worth having a gun to defend more than my arse and just meant we had someone to talk to while we hacked the gibson. We had PDA's too, as the job details were digital

Report it to a WESTPAC branch if you think its suspect - they will take it seriously and follow it up. If there was a service tech out on a call they will know and if not they will send one out to investigate any tampering.

If he was legit, he might have been undertaking an audit of the machine, identifying the correct parts to replace, taking notes or sending pictures to a work mate for help.

If not.. well, WESTPAC has no idea that one of their machines was tampered with...

[landy]

Reminds me of a previous job working as a bonafide ATM/EFTPOS tech for a contractor. We did CBA, NAB, WESTPAC gear just to name a few and it was only one slice of the pie that was my daily task set.

Why would he need to show you ID? :confused::confused: If I thought you didn't fit the bill for someone who should be driving, would it be right for me to ask you to see your drivers license? Fair play, I wouldn't show you my ID either.

Why would you report possible tampering of a WESTPAC ATM to the Commonwealth bank?

We didn't wear uniforms, nor did we have ID on us 99% of the time. It was just black slacks and a shirt. Maybe a murmur of discontent if we wore our favorite T shirt 2 days in a row. When working internally on ATM's we had a security guard present but only because the crap inside was worth having a gun to defend more than my arse and just meant we had someone to talk to while we hacked the gibson. We had PDA's too, as the job details were digital

Report it to a WESTPAC branch if you think its suspect - they will take it seriously and follow it up. If there was a service tech out on a call they will know and if not they will send one out to investigate any tampering.

If he was legit, he might have been undertaking an audit of the machine, identifying the correct parts to replace, taking notes or sending pictures to a work mate for help.

If not.. well, WESTPAC has no idea that one of their machines was tampered with...

In my line of work we are required to carry ID at all times. We are also required to show it to anybody who has a lawful reason to see it. I figured that if you weren't doing anything wrong you wouldn't mind showing it.
The reason there I reported it to the Comm bank is there isn't a Westpac (I think) in Brookside. But the Comm bank is within spitting distance of the ATM in question. I just thought that was the best thing to do at 8:45. As it was the bloke in the comm bank wasn't to keen to open the doors for me prior to opening.
But you raise some good points.

Cheers.

[Greatsouthernland]

Hi all,
I saw a funny thing today. I was in Brookside shopping centre with Kerry. We where sitting at Gloria Jeans and had a clear view of the Westpac ATM. I sat and watched a guy who appeared to be dressed in 'normal clothes' not the uniform of a service tech or security guard. Anyway he removed the outer trim of the ATM and took photos of the top insides of the machine with an IPad. When he had finished that he replaced the trim and then took out an iPhone and while wearing ear phones started pressing buttons and I thought this was very strange. No body seemed to notice what he was doing, or didn't care. I walked over and asked what he was doing and he casually said he was a service technician. I asked to see some ID but he said he didn't have any. He seemed quite casual. Now I don't know if its just my suspicious nature but I just didn't like what I saw and reported it to the staff at the commonwealth bank.
I'm convinced he was installing a skimming device but he was just so casual about it.
Anyway, point is be very careful at the ATMs. You just might get ripped off.

Cheers,

Call crimestoppers! :cool:

There may be a reward :eek:
.

.

[DeeJay]

I would have taken his photograph - up nice & close too( if he was smaller than me:D ) and simply said - you have to admit, this looks fairly irregular, but if you are who you say, why worry?
And yes, I am a stirrer :twisted:

[3toes]

The photo is not a bad idea. Whenever I buy a car or large ticket item privately always have a Kodak moment where the seller and the say car are together with the rego number visible. If they will not do it I walk away from the deal.

[nat_89]

Good work ill say, good on you for asking him questions and good on you for reporting it!! Im with NAB and in the last 2 weeks I've had $2000 stolen off of my credit card from Dublin Ireland and their fraud team caught on to none of it!!! So I'm all for stopping card skimming haha

[Greatsouthernland]

In my line of work we are required to carry ID at all times. We are also required to show it to anybody who has a lawful reason to see it. I figured that if you weren't doing anything wrong you wouldn't mind showing it.
The reason there I reported it to the Comm bank is there isn't a Westpac (I think) in Brookside. But the Comm bank is within spitting distance of the ATM in question. I just thought that was the best thing to do at 8:45. As it was the bloke in the comm bank wasn't to keen to open the doors for me prior to opening.
But you raise some good points.

Cheers.

Why didn't you report it to the police? I was serious about the crimestoppers bit, eventually it's the cops job.

Don't get me wrong, I reckon it's great that you noticed it and did something, just that you went to all the effort, but trusted some potentially uninterested bloke in an unrelated bank....some of these skimmers are well organised and funded European mafia types, so keep an eye out for suspicious vehicles following you now I reckon :D. :ninja:

[landy]

Why didn't you report it to the police? I was serious about the crimestoppers bit, eventually it's the cops job.

Don't get me wrong, I reckon it's great that you noticed it and did something, just that you went to all the effort, but trusted some potentially uninterested bloke in an unrelated bank....some of these skimmers are well organised and funded European mafia types, so keep an eye out for suspicious vehicles following you now I reckon :D. :ninja:

I didn't give it that much thought to be honest. We bank with Commonwelth so I'll go and ask the guy what he did about it. I've dealt with him before and he seems.............ok. Can't really say.

[Greatsouthernland]

I didn't give it that much thought to be honest. We bank with Commonwelth so I'll go and ask the guy what he did about it. I've dealt with him before and he seems.............ok. Can't really say.

Thanks for the reply Landy.

Again, I must say I think you did a great job to follow up on your suspicions.

I'd be interested as to what your job is that also requires ID to be carried and shown if requested. Maybe you have some background that caused you to notice something about this persons behaviour/actions, that other citizens/shoppers failed to pick up on?

Very interesting situation, thanks for sharing, I look forward to hearing what the CBA employee did with your report.....:)
.

[ramblingboy42]

Good work ill say, good on you for asking him questions and good on you for reporting it!! Im with NAB and in the last 2 weeks I've had $2000 stolen off of my credit card from Dublin Ireland and their fraud team caught on to none of it!!! So I'm all for stopping card skimming haha

g'day Nat.....hows Dysart?

up until last september I was a regular there for a couple of years.....well at the servo anyway....probably stopped there once a week.

not many on here would know where it is and why it's there.

hijack apologies.

Den

[nat_89]

g'day Nat.....hows Dysart?

up until last september I was a regular there for a couple of years.....well at the servo anyway....probably stopped there once a week.

not many on here would know where it is and why it's there.

hijack apologies.

Den

Hey Den
its pretty quiet at the moment mate i can tell you that house prices are down and there isn't much at all lot of closed shops and just slowly getting by!!

You probably wouldn't have seen a disco there then as i only just got mine in late January, but yeah quiet little town at the moment.

[Meken]

I didn't give it that much thought to be honest. We bank with Commonwelth so I'll go and ask the guy what he did about it. I've dealt with him before and he seems.............ok. Can't really say.

Good work on doing something about it -
Doesn't the ATM have a contact number for Westpac on it - call them - not sure why you would spend more time at the comm bank when you could just call Westpac and tell them what you saw

[Sitec]

Well done. At least you did something, and let someone know. I'd be interested in the follow up. As for skimming/scamming etc, I was in our local ANZ today, and was asked if I wanted to use 'Paywave'. My response was no, and that it was disabled on my card. She then came back by telling me that the new ANZ cards all come with Paywave, and that it can't be disabled... Not happy!! I've heard a lot of negative stuff about it and really don't want a card with that facility and would contemplate changing banks to avoid it...

[Greatsouthernland]

.....hows Dysart?

not many on here would know where it is and why it's there.

hijack apologies.

Den

BMA...Saraji...

Bin there a couple o times too...:p

[nat_89]

BMA...Saraji...

Bin there a couple o times too...:p

Hahaha yeah mate yep thats the one!