A high-tech syndicate composed mainly of Romanians is believed to be behind a spate of recent ATM skimming incidents that have targeted almost 40 ATMs in Sydney alone, the Fraud Squad says.
Up to a dozen members of the sophisticated gang are believed to have entered the country in recent months, moving between capital cities and attaching skimming devices to ATMs, said Colin Dyson, Commander of the NSW Fraud Squad. They operate under the orders of international ringleaders, who at the same time orchestrate similar scams in other countries. At least 10 ATMs in Melbourne have been used to steal customers' bank card details and more than $1 million, police say.
Sydney has been hardest hit, with police sources saying as many as 40 ATMs have been targeted. The amount of cash stolen is yet to be tallied.
NSW police on Sunday arrested two Romanian nationals after people saw them allegedly installing suspicious devices on an ATM at Avalon, on Sydney's northern beaches. The men, aged 36 and 32, were charged with possessing implements for making false instruments, and face court today. Seven other Romanian men aged in their 20s and 30s have already been charged over the scams - two who faced court in Sydney last week and five in Melbourne.
In recent days, police in the US and New Zealand also prosecuted Romanian nationals over ATM skimming.
"It's a global phenomenon," Detective Superintendent Dyson said. "We also suffer a fair bit of internet fraud from that part of the world, from Eastern Europe and Russia. "It seems they're adept at putting this technology together."
Detective Superintendent Dyson said there had been a rise in ATM skimming since late last year, "Back in 2005 we arrested some Bulgarians that came out here. "There hasn't been a great number of incidents since then, but towards the end of the year we started to see it again."
"The monetary impact is hard to gauge, even for the financial institutions, as its hard to identify [if missing money] is the result of ATM skimming, retail skimming or phishing or internet fraud," Detective Superintendent Dyson said.
