Public safety column: Thieves go high tech

By Sallie James SunSentinel.com
November 14, 2008

Thieves can be imaginative when it comes to stealing your money, with some of the most popular schemes involving automatic teller machines or phony land deals.

High-tech crooks have found ways to install removeable card readers in the machines, enabling them to steal personal information from the card you slip it into the slot, said Broward Sheriff's Sgt. Jay Leiner.

They've also figured out ways to hook up tiny cameras that record your personal identification numbers.

When you complete your transaction, the thieves remove the equpment, hook it up to a computer, and download your personal information, Leiner said.

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Everything they need to know is contained in the magnetic strip on your card.

"They run the numbers and make up cards," Leiner said.

For thieves, it's a lucrative business. For the victims, it means untold headaches.

"It's becoming quite commonplace, especially at gas stations," Leiner said. "We might not see it for months at a time, and then we see it happen several times -- a couple times a month and then it disappears," he said.

To avoid becoming a victim:

Pull on the spot in the ATM or gas pump where the card goes in. If anything comes off, don't use the machine.

Be watchful of your surroundings. The thieves are usually watching because they don't like to leave their equipment unattended.

In another twist, thieves have also used hand-held card readers to steal credit card information from restaurant customers, said Palm Beach County Sheriff's Sgt. Keith Conley.

The waiter skims the cards of his customers, and gets paid for every card he skims, Conley said.

The thief who owns the skimmer downloads the credit card information to a computer, without the victim ever knowing, Conley said.

Real-estate rip-offs are another type of burgeoning crime, police said.

One of the most common involves fake real estate sales.

An alleged landowner tries to sell land that he doesn't own or that doesn't even exist, Leiner said.

In October, the Broward Sheriff's Office charged a North Lauderdale man with grand theft for selling an imaginary six-acre stretch to a buyer for $100,000.

The victim made two payments a year apart without ever seeing the property or obtaining a legal description of the tract, Leiner said.

"If you are going to be buying land, you might want to go look at it, check the county records and see who owns it, see if it's up for sale," Leiner said.

Stay Safe appears every Saturday in the Local section. Send questions or column suggestions to StaySafe@Sun-Sentinel.com, or to Stay Safe, Sun-Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

Sallie James can be reached at Sjames@sun-sentinel.com or 954-572-2019.


source: sun sentinal


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