UPPER WEST SIDE — Nearly half of all property thefts of more than $1,000 in the neighborhood last month stemmed from thieves stealing credit card or ATM information, police revealed.
There were 48 grand larcenies — or thefts of property worth more than $1,000 — in the 20th Precinct between Feb. 29 and March 27, with 22 of those involving credit and bank card fraud, Capt. Levon Holley said at a precinct meeting Monday.
"What’s becoming very prevalent now are [credit card] skimming devices," Holley said of thieves placing skimming devices on top of card readers so they can record the information.
In ATM scams, fraudsters install fake keypads on machines or place a camera near the keypad in order to record a person's PIN number, he said.
The thieves then make identical copies of the cards and use it with the stolen PIN, Holley explained.
ATM machines found in stores, as opposed to banks, seem to be more susceptible to these devices and scams, but it's hard to track down exactly where they are happening, beyond the general neighborhood vicinity, he noted.
The 20th Precinct runs between West 59th and 86th streets from Central Park to the Hudson River.
"When you do go to these machines, pull on the actual card reader," Holley advised. "[The skimmers are] not affixed with any type of glue or device."
He also recommended that card owners shield keypads with their hands or wallets when inputting a PIN.
