Card Skimming in Galway City Supermarket

Sponge Bob

Not Dunnes Tesco or a German store and apparently the card data was intercepted by skimming INSIDE the store or else by installing a listening device on the modem .

Both laser and credit cards are affected.

Her Bank just rang my sister and her card is now being cancelled and reissued.

Has anyone else heard this story or been contacted by their banks ?

LadyMayBelle

Nope, that's pretty worrying tho..so someone working there is fitting the device, is that what youre saying?

Zzippy

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Not Dunnes Tesco or a German store

So either Supervalu or Joyces? Why not name them? Or could the card have been skimmed elsewhere? First time I've heard of this in a supermarket...

kayos

The ATM outside joyces was hit a while ago I think. But dear lord if they are doing it from the inside...

At least credit cards are protected from this but if I remember rightly no fraud protection is in place for laser's

Demeyes

It's something I wondered about. If your card is skimmed can you get the money back fronm your bank?

serfboard

Could this be what you're referring to?

kayos

I got a friendly phone call from BoI last night telling me my card was one of the cards effected. So card has been cancelled. Only thing they would not say was where the device was. This is something I find out of order. If a shop was bloody stupid enough to let random people "service" their POS card readers I dont want to ever go there again and if I do it will be cash.

The headlines can say it was only 5 stores but not what stores they where ><

DeadSkin

The bank said it will issue affected customers with new cards, after a criminal gang skimmed cards in a small number of retail outlets.

The individuals involved fitted devices to sales terminals while pretending to carry out maintenance work on behalf of banks.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0818/fraud.html

kayos

Thing is there are reports are saying the devices where in the north and east and they where tampered with last Thursday. I have not used my laser to pay for anything in Dublin in about 3 weeks. I think this is much bigger than the reports are letting on... Galway would be about 2 weeks ago. Taking out cash yes but unless they also hit ATM's I'm stumped.

galah

But why is it only BoI?

Would other banks not also be affected? I find this a little strange...Unless they mean shops that have an ATM inside???

Sponge Bob

Its not only BoI , its every card issuer. Its just that BoI have acted fairly quickly .

The supermarket is not small and is located in the west of the city by the way . Ring your local branch for clarification if you are worried you may have been in there while the devices were in situ .

The skimming was not ATM related skimming but involved skimming on Cash Registers inside shops. The devices were possibly installed by individuals pretending to be bank employees or system maintenance engineers and not by the shops own staff.

ErnieBert

My sister's card was skimmed after a transaction in a supermaket.

Is there a reason why we can't mention the name of the supermarket? Anyway, it didn't happen in Athenry or Headford.

Her 'card' was used to take out €200 from an ATM in France

Madame Razz

Are we talking about the one in Knocknacarra then??

Sponge Bob

ErnieBert wrote: »

Is there a reason why we can't mention the name of the supermarket?

No reason , its just that it wasn't on the front page of the papers last week . It is now .

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0818/breaking84.htm

and they know it happened in Galway but chose not to admit that . They also chose not to admit the skimming went on in July or even earlier .

staker

Just wondering, what happens when i give my Laser Card details to a long-trusted member of the trade over the phone? Who else sees these?
Is it just a once-off screenpage or could anyone back scroll to those details??

Sponge Bob

Its all about who he had in to "fix" his system recently not your friend.

staker

That solves that so, cheers..

Sponge Bob

Funnily enough the bank were quite forthcoming to my sister about where it happened but never said that a cloned card had been used anywhere. They even apologised for all the hassle

Staker If 'someone from the bank' has been in to do maintenance in the past 3 months then he should get the terminal suppliers to come in straight away to validate his system.

It would be very distressing for a good reputable business to get caught out by international fraudsters but as I understand it the scam is confined to supermarkets garages pubs and restaurants where the scammers could easily case the gaff , see what was there already and replace with seemingly identical units .

If the card unit is upstairs in an office , out of sight, then they could not have done it without inside information from the TERMINAL supply company .

It is not thought at present that the gang was that well connected but our banks are typically rather economical with the truth in these matters .

DRakE

my card had to be cancelled and reissued, i'm almost certain it was from the joyces atm

Sponge Bob

I said it was not an ATM skim, it was a Till Scanner skim .

spurscormac

My credit card was done, I usually use my laser, but occasionally have used the cc.
I am a frequent shopper at a certain Knocknacarra store, and thats where I suspected it - lots of floor staff, visible lack of management any time I have visited.
Anyway, got told by BoI that there was €250 withdrawn from an ATM on Wed morning in Milan, same again tried on Thurs morning, which they stopped.

Strange thing was, how is 2 withdrawals of €250 from an ATM flaggable as suspicious, I could easily have been on holiday.
It smacks of them knowing it, yet not doing anything about it.
At least its covered on the credit card I suppose.

Another weird thing was, the initial contact I had was a txt from a UK number saying this is BoI Security, please contact us on 00353 1.....
That was at 7.20 am, so I was half asleep - rang the number, then thought hold on, this is a fraud, so had to wait until after 8am to speak to a BoI official on their supposed 24-hr phoneline.
They put me through to credit card services who told me the story above.

To end a very weird morning, the guy asked me to cut the card in two and post it to BoI in Dublin.
Now there is no way I'm doing that. Its gonna be shredded.

JohnCleary

Would you have been covered if you had of used your Laser card?

DeadSkin

JohnCleary wrote: »

Would you have been covered if you had of used your Laser card?

Yep.

baldbear

It would be handy if everytime you made a withdrawel an instant text message was sent to your mobile phone and if there was anything suspicious you would know straight away!! That idea has to have been floated around to the banks but they are probably to stingy to invest in it. Cowboys, there all cowboys ted.;)

JohnCleary

baldbear wrote: »

It would be handy if everytime you made a withdrawel an instant text message was sent to your mobile phone and if there was anything suspicious you would know straight away!! That idea has to have been floated around to the banks but they are probably to stingy to invest in it. Cowboys, there all cowboys ted.;)

That's actualyl a really good idea, but do you think the banks would actually invest in that? ... no a hope. either that or charge us lots for it ie. 10c every time we use our card :eek:

kayos

To be honest I'm just waiting for BoI to try and apply a charge for the new card to be issued. I hope to feck they dont but this is a bank we are talking about.

If they did bring in that sms service you can be sure it would be a bit more expensive more like 2euro per message. Even if they did it as a daily/weekly summary it would be good. But with on line banking its pretty easy to keep an eye on whats coming or going.

soundbyte

I heard last night that there are thousands of affected customers in Galway, not just Joyces, but a couple of Dunnes outlets were hit too, and that the figure involved will easily be in six figures.

What really concerns me is the fact that IPSO are saying it isn't connected to what went on in the east of the country over the last few days. Are we to believe its just a bizarre coincidence?

http://www.galwaynews.ie/4694-hundreds-hit-skimming-scam

kayos

soundbyte wrote: »

What really concerns me is the fact that IPSO are saying it isn't connected to what went on in the east of the country over the last few days. Are we to believe its just a bizarre coincidence?

Speaking with BoI today they said it was the same scam. When I asked how long I was told the cards had been skimmed over the past few months but the fraud transactions only started happening last Thursday.

The media seems to be playing this down or at least the info the media is being fed is not complete. Look at the reports and they only mention the east and north east. The devices where only placed in the shops last Thursday/Friday. etc etc. My laser was not used to pay for anything in a store for weeks yet it got skimmed.... go figure

Jugs82

2 girls in the office have had calls over the last hour or so letting them know that their cards had been skimmed and in one case that a withdrawl had been made in Canada

Both shop regularly in the Knocknacarra area

Cheshire Cat

My card was cancelled today, too. Do most of my shopping in Dunnes/Joyces in Knocknacarra. Checked account online, but nothing seems to have been taken
Wonder how long it will take to get a replacement card?!?

Chris_533976

Collegue at work got BOI cards cancelled today...

ValerieR

spurscormac wrote: »

...
Strange thing was, how is 2 withdrawals of €250 from an ATM flaggable as suspicious, I could easily have been on holiday.
...

If there are simultaneous transactions in different countries, visa tends to stop the visa.
It happened us when both of us were in 2 different countries at the same time... It's a bit of a nuisance but good practice!
You can ring your visa customer service to let them know of your whereabouts.

stepbar

The debit card frauds are still in the process of being investigated by the Gardai so it would be best not to name any shops etc at this point. You will hear the banks reiterate this point as well which is fair considering the case(s) are being still investigated.

spurscormac

To add to my c card, BoI rang me yesterdya to tell me they were blocking my laser card as a precaution and were sending me out a new one.
The person who rang me gave me the line that they couldn't say due to Garda investigation, which is fine, I understand that.

What I am happy about is the fact that BoI seem to be acting proactively about it.
Is anyone out there from AIB or other banks experiencing any issues and have they been contacted by their bank?

SimpleSam06

As far as I know either these machines phone home or someone has to come in and pick up the chip themselves to read the details. Either way it should be eminently traceable. What I want to know is who is responsible for it? Are we talking eastern european crime gangs or local talent? Its a very complex thing to put together, requiring a lot of organisation and technical sophistication, so I would say international anyway.

big b

Got a call from AIB yesterday to say they had stopped my laser card & were sending out a new one today & a new pin in a couple of days.
Told me there was an uncleared debit against my card & I should check my balance online frequently. If that or any other transactions aren't mine, I have to go into any AIB branch & fill out a fraud form to get the money refunded.
Meantime, if I want cash, I have to take photographic ID into an AIB branch along with my existing card.

I used my laser card in a retail outlet in the west of the city for the first time last weekend........

GerardKeating

Jugs82 wrote: »

2 girls in the office have had calls over the last hour or so letting them know that their cards had been skimmed and in one case that a withdrawl had been made in Canada

Both shop regularly in the Knocknacarra area

Interesting, a collegue also had some "canadian" action recently, Bank contaced him yesterday.

DeadSkin

Detectives are working on the theory that somebody in the Galway shop may have facilitated the card skimming for an Eastern European crime syndicate.

Gardaí do not believe the payment terminals were tampered with. Gardaí have recovered CCTV images of suspects from in-store cameras.

Source

kayos

DeadSkin wrote: »

Source

Woud not surprise me at all in that shop....

SimpleSam06

DeadSkin wrote: »

Source

Great, so now we have the Russian mafia wandering the streets of Galway. Lovely.

DeadSkin

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

Great, so now we have the Russian mafia wandering the streets of Galway. Lovely.

ROFL

Bass Cadet

Can someone PM me the name of this store that got skimmed?? I have an idea but would like to know for sure if I've been done aswell

Madame Razz

Pm me too...Im getting kinda worried by all this....

spurscormac

If this report from the IT is true, then I'm beginning to question my original suspicions as to the shop in question.
I know someone who's card was also compromised, who does not shop there at all.
So if it's just one shop in question, and an insider job, then it would mean trying to pin down the shops we have both used.

I have a suspect shop already in my head, but couldn't be sure, so am not willing to say anything on here.

CDog

Surely most of the cash registers in these big stores are under ctv surveilence all the time?? This should mean that whoever tampered with the card machines were caught on camera!

Perhaps we have to wait for the next episode of crimewatch to see the footage! Maybe the gardai should think about putting up a 'Wanted' website with footage from these and other crimes!

Just an idea sorry for wandering off topic!

DeadSkin

CDog wrote: »

Surely most of the cash registers in these big stores are under ctv surveilence all the time?? This should mean that whoever tampered with the card machines were caught on camera!

Perhaps we have to wait for the next episode of crimewatch to see the footage! Maybe the gardai should think about putting up a 'Wanted' website with footage from these and other crimes!

Just an idea sorry for wandering off topic!

From above

Gardaí have recovered CCTV images of suspects from in-store cameras.

kayos

To be honest with both these scams coming together I can see the use of laser cards dropping for a while and people going back to the good old cash method.

If they do name the store in Galway and it does turn out to be an inside job by staff I would expect them to start losing a lot of business.

Madame Razz

We'll all be back physically withdrawing our money from our actual banks and using cheques!!!

Tis feckin safer methinks!!!

Madame Razz

IRONICALLY enough, I just had a call from AIB to ask could they cancel my card as they were aware that my details had been acquired as a result of this scam. Thankfully no money was taken from my account.

I am now almost certain that this was as a result of using my lasercard in said supermarket, as I rarely use the card anyway, and used it there on a once in a blue moon shop there in July!

galah

Same happened to fiancee - AIB card got cancelled, phone call today, but luckily, they noticed before anyone could take out money...

Nothing is safe anymore...If you use the ATM, they'll get ya, if you use Laser in the shop they'll get ya, and if you withdraw money from the bank (provided you can work around those stupid bank opening times), they'll probably rob ya on the way to the car...

pzer

AIB as well and got the call on Tues night, i have used atm and laser in said Knocknacarra store so must be there. Nothing taken off me yet but am couple days without atm card which i dont really mind seeing as what has happened others. Think ill use cash anymore where possible. Always figured that using laser in shop where you can see the transaction happen would leave ya safe enough but apparently not........