A group of thieves used ATM “skimmers” to scan debit card and pin number information and steal thousands of dollars from people in Lewis County and throughout Southwest Washington Friday and Saturday.
“It’s a problem for the whole industry,” Mike Sand, president of Timberland Bank, told The Chronicle Wednesday.
The fraud affected Timberland Bank branches in Hoquiam, Aberdeen, Lacey, Toledo and Gig Harbor, as well as several other northwest banks, according to a release from Timberland Bank.
A number of Toledo residents and customers of the Toledo branch of Timberland Bank saw their bank accounts cleared out after the skimmers swiped their pin and debit card numbers, said Toledo resident and Chronicle columnist Julie McDonald.
McDonald said she deposited money into her account Friday, but when she tried to use her ATM card over the weekend, it was declined.
“I was freaking out,” she said. “I checked online at home and I just went ballistic.”
McDonald’s account showed a $503 withdrawal in Bellevue and another $403 withdrawal in Pacific.
“One lady in my exercise class this morning said it happened to her boyfriend and his car payment bounced,” she said.
McDonald said the incident has made her paranoid about using her ATM card.
Sands said the bank will refund money its customers lost in the scam.
Skimmers are often installed in ATM machines, gas station pumps, or at any other debit card terminal by organized groups of thieves moving through an area, Sands said.
“It is usually over a one-day period or so and then they’re gone,” he said.
The skimmers fit on the existing ATM machine and read the card number. They include a camera that records a person entering their pin number, Sands added. ATM users should check machines for anything that looks out of place before inserting their card, according to the Timberland Bank release.
“There’s a number of different kinds — they’re made often to look so good you won’t know they’re not part of the real ATMs,” Sands said.
Surveillance video might have caught people installing the skimmers, Sands said.
“We do have video of folks walking up to various ATMs and doing their thing and looking around,” he said.
Timberland Bank is working with the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service and local law enforcement agencies to investigate the skimming incidents.
