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Police Investigating ATM Card Skimmers in Scranton

SCRANTON — Scranton police are looking for three men caught on camera twice stealing bank information from folks who used an ATM in Scranton. Officers say...
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SCRANTON -- Scranton police are looking for three men caught on camera twice stealing bank information from folks who used an ATM in Scranton.

Officers say they used "card skimmer" technology to take other people's card information.

What concerns bank officials most is that there is little they can do to prevent the devices from being used or detected.

Officials from Penn East Federal Credit Union on North Seventh Avenue say the same group of three men pulled up to the ATM on two different days this month. Each time, they installed that card skimming technology and left it there for several hours.

The credit union only realized it was happening after members started calling about fraudulent charges on their accounts.

Katelyn McManamon from Penn East Federal Credit Union showed us the surveillance video from the branch on North Seventh Avenue in Scranton.

Video from Sunday morning, May 8, shows three men in a car and the driver seemingly teaching one of his passengers how to install what's called a card skimmer. Then they place a panel over the ATM that has a camera and can record users putting in their PIN numbers.

McManamon says it was well disguised.

"The light, they actually have a light that looks like this that they put in and that was the damage that they caused taking it off."

The men returned to the same ATM on May 16 and used the same two pieces of technology.

Credit union officials say short of catching them in the act, there's little that can be done. And it would be tough for ATM users to know the crooks had been here.

"That is probably the most frightening part, is that you would never know that this ATM had been skimmed. There was absolutely no indication that there was anything going on at this ATM," said McManamon.

Penn East says it has notified all of its members, more than 70 in all, who used the ATM at the North Seventh Avenue branch during those two days. They can't keep track of people who used different bank cards at this location.

If you think you might be at risk, you're asked to call your bank.

If you think you recognize the men in the video, you're asked to call Scranton Police.

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