RALEIGH
At least 300 customers of a statewide credit union have been swindled after crooks copied their ATM cards, but police said that customers of other banking institutions may also be victims.
Officials with the N.C. State Employees Credit Union alerted customers this week about the scam in which thieves apparently focused on exploiting card-readers at gas pumps.
The credit union, based in Raleigh, is not the only financial institution affected, nor is Raleigh the only location, police spokesman Jim Sughrue of Raleigh said. A total number of victims is incomplete because people are still discovering that money was stolen from their accounts, he said.
The incidents extended at least as far west as Burlington and Mebane, according to Elaine Wallace, a spokeswoman for the credit union.
A similar skimming crime spree involving at least 700 victims occurred in Forsyth County and the Triad in October 2005. Some victims said that thousands of dollars were taken from their accounts.
"Anyone who uses a gas pump is a potential victim," senior Vice President Leigh Brady of SECU said.
The fraud, known as "skimming," involves thieves placing a device over an ATM card reader to capture data from a card's magnetic strip. A nearby camera records the card user punching in the personal identification number that matches the card.
Crooks then clone the card to make purchases and withdrawals from the victim's banking accounts.
"We have had members' card information used as far away as West Virginia," Brady said.
The ATM-card thieves typically place the skimming devices on gas pumps where the items are harder to detect.
"It's a lot easier because the devices are not sticking out on a gas pump," Brady said.
Consumers typically have up to 60 days to report missing money. However, the credit union said that card-fraud victims are not held liable when fraud occurs on their account.
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