Apple Clients Skimmed at ATM

By COLlive reporter

Now that’s not what you would call “savings”…

Account holders at Apple Bank for Savings at 318 Albany Avenue in Brooklyn, NY, were recently the target of credit card fraud while using the bank’s 24 hour ATM service.

According to one resident, who banks at Apple, a skimming device seems to have been used to steal credit card information.

Skimming is the theft of payment card information used in an otherwise legitimate transaction. The thief can procure a victim’s card number using basic methods such as photocopying receipts or more advanced methods such as using a small electronic device (skimmer) to swipe and store hundreds of victims’ card numbers.

“My Apple Bank Visa debit card has never been used anywhere except at that ATM machine,” the person told COLlive.com on Monday. “But someone managed to make fraudulent withdrawals at three different banks using a fake card, and with knowledge of my PIN no.”

He said that he has gone to the bank to report the fraudulent charges and met another 2 customers who reported the same problem.

“The security breach is most likely at their on-site ATM,” he said, noting that the branch manager David Schwartz admitted that this “was most likely.”

But when COLlive.com contacted Schwartz for further information, he refused to discuss the matter and abruptly hung up the phone.

Another bank employee, however, told COLlive that this hasn’t been an isolated incident and in fact, there were other such cases reported at Apple Bank.

NYPD Detective Vincent Martinos said in response: “We can’t verify at this time any skimmer was used but so far the few reports that were made looks like Apple Bank is the common denominator, so we are certainly looking into the possibility of one.”