Debit card skimming 'epidemic': police

Criminals across the country are stealing debit card terminals, installing equipment to record card information and PIN codes, then replacing them and using the skimmed data to clean out bank accounts, according to police.

"They'll steal it and put a decoy in its place so the employee at the end of the day or the end of the shift, as they're doing a scan of the business, everything looks good, yeah there's a PIN pad in place, closes up the doors," said Const. Elvin Toy of the economic crimes unit of the Edmonton police.

He says criminals will return to the place of business early in the morning, distract a clerk and replace the decoy pad with one equipped to skim a person's data.

"It's epidemic," said Toy. "Every time there's a long weekend, we just cringe because we know there's going to be a giant fraud bent."

Police in Lethbridge, Alta., arrested a 23-year-old Montreal man on Friday after security at an Alberta Treasury Branch in the city noticed suspicious activity.

The man was found with three dozen data cards with PIN codes written on them, along with $1,200 in cash.

Data on the cards had been skimmed at a Lethbridge restaurant in June.

Interac spokeswoman Tina Romano told CBC News that last year $142 million was reimbursed to customers who were victims of debit card fraud.

"To put it into perspective, there's about four billion transactions that go through the network and 99.99 per cent go through problem free, so it is a safe system," she said.

'The bad guys go into a city, and they just carpet bomb the city with these skimmers.' — Elvin Toy, Edmonton police

Toy told CBC News that at least two organized groups are travelling the country in an elaborate skimming scheme.

"The bad guys go into a city, and they just carpet bomb the city with these skimmers, and then they'll come back months later to do the harvest."

Toy says it's not inconceivable for the groups to collect over $1 million in data in a single day.

"The bad guys are at the point where collecting the data isn't the problem," he said. "It's withdrawing the money fast enough before the banks can prevent it by cancelling accounts, finding out what the common point of purchase is."

Romano says Interac has programs in place to prevent skimming.

"Behind the scenes, there's a variety of things happening across the industry to protect the card holder. And that is a lot of the education that is happening," she said.

Romano says it's still a good policy for customers to make sure they protect their PIN.

But with the new style of skimming sensors on keypads being able to record PIN codes along with card data and transmit it to a remote receiver, people should also change their PIN as often as once a month, she said.