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Man Busted with Identity-Theft Device at SoHo ATM

A device attached to a Chase ATM on Broadway at Spring Street June 15, 2012, was designed to steal card numbers and PINs, court records said.
A device attached to a Chase ATM on Broadway at Spring Street June 15, 2012, was designed to steal card numbers and PINs, court records said.
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Flickr/ThomasHawk

MANHATTAN — A would-be identity thief found himself in cuffs after getting busted last week trying to swipe debit card information at a SoHo cash machine.

First Precinct police arrested Mady Diakite, 34, after a security guard at a Chase branch on Broadway near Spring Street spotted him attaching an identity-theft device stamped with the bank's logo and equipped with a pinhole camera to an ATM, court records showed. 

The guard at the 525 Broadway branch saw Diakite placing the device on an ATM about 9:30 p.m. Friday, June 15, court documents said. After about 20 people used the ATM, Diakite removed the device, which was designed to capture bankers' card numbers and catch them on camera entering their PINs, records showed.

The guard then confronted Diakite, a native of Western Sahara, and took the device, records said.

Fraudsters use such devices, known as skimmers, to access cardholders' accounts, make purchases and withdraw cash. 

Chase did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.

Diakite faces felony charges for criminal possession of forgery devices and scheming to defraud, as well as a misdemeanor charge for possession of a skimmer device. 

He's being held at Manhattan Detention Complex on White Street on $40,000 bail, according to city Department of Correction records. 

Diakite, whose lawyer declined to comment on his case, is due in court Thursday.