Identity scammers hit H.B. ATM

The Fullerton Police Department has announced that a group of criminals has been committing credit card fraud in Huntington Beach and Fullerton through the use of “card skimmers.�

When the illegal device is slipped into the card slot on an ATM, it can capture personal identification numbers (or PINs) when a customer uses the machine.

The skimmer records the data on a microchip. It is later used to make false debit cards, and the perpetrators begin to withdraw funds from the victim’s account.

A skimmer was believed to be installed on an ATM at a Huntington Beach Bank of America branch on Sept. 21, Fullerton police said. Afterward, the same type of skimmer was installed on a machine in Fullerton.

Surveillance photos showed those who used the bogus ATM cards were in their 20s, cleanshaven, well-dressed and wore sunglasses, police said.

The last widespread rash of fraud occurred in Huntington Beach two years ago, when more than $90,000 was siphoned from about 70 customers’ bank accounts after they patronized at a Ralphs supermarket on Goldenwest Street.

Anyone with any information is asked to call Detective Benjamin Lira of the Fullerton Police Department at (714) 738-6786.

— Candice Baker