I've talked quite a bit about the dangers of skimming devices and the ease at which they are available to criminals.. Whether skimmers are attached to ATM's or hand held your credit card information can be skimmed quickly and easily without your knowledge. If your Debit Card information is skimmed, you may have your account cleaned out before you can even close your account!
Remember, credit card skimming can happen at nearly any business establishment, if you are not particularly watchful of your credit card. A current employee can pilfer information to sell to an identity thief in a blink of an eye. Watch the below video to see just how easily it occurs.
Here's a recent story from Texas where 400 people had their Debit Cards skimmed while at a local restaurant (much like the earlier blog noted about a similar Colorado case).
Bank links multiple identity theft cases to Gainesville restaurant
Texas/Record breaking identity theft numbers have hit Texoma, and the city of Gainesville has seen a drastic increase, where bank officials say one restaurant has over 400 people left without debit cards. Rashi Vats explains.
Gainesville police say there have been over 30 cases of identity theft in just the past month, and one restaurant in Gainesville has put about 400 customers in danger of being victims of identity theft.
It's the rumor going around town.
"I heard that some guy used his debit card at Golden Chick and supposedly about $400 was taken out of his account," Maegan Puetz told us.
So instead of going to Golden Chick, Maegan and her friend, Ellanie, went somewhere else to eat, because, as we learned Tuesday, bank officials say Golden Chick has been a place where 400 of its customers were in danger of identity theft between October and mid-November.
First State Bank in Gainesville received a number of phone calls from their customers about transactions they never made. It turned out they were victims of fraud.
"What we understand would have happened is someone who would frequent the restaurant on a particular day, their card information was also captured, and basically the magnetic strip, and they reproduced the plastic with that magnetic strip information on it, and then used it and other locations, creating fraudulent transactions," says Tim Turbeville, Senior VP at First State Bank of Gainesville.
First State Bank then investigated all of their customers' accounts and found there were more people in danger than they expected.
"We had a list of accounts that reported the fraud, so we pulled transactions back from an earlier point in time, and we noticed that a common denominator that all these customers went to Golden Chick," Turbeville says.
Now First State Bank is taking a proactive approach by currently notifying those 400 customers and issuing new debit cards.
Golden Chick goes owner Dee Lee says she gave the Gainesville Police Department surveillance video, and they found nothing connected to the restaurant. Click here to read MORE
Watch how hand held skimmers are used to skim customer credit cards
Remember, credit card skimming can happen at nearly any business establishment, if you are not particularly watchful of your credit card. A current employee can pilfer information to sell to an identity thief in a blink of an eye. Watch the below video to see just how easily it occurs.
Here's a recent story from Texas where 400 people had their Debit Cards skimmed while at a local restaurant (much like the earlier blog noted about a similar Colorado case).
Bank links multiple identity theft cases to Gainesville restaurant
Texas/Record breaking identity theft numbers have hit Texoma, and the city of Gainesville has seen a drastic increase, where bank officials say one restaurant has over 400 people left without debit cards. Rashi Vats explains.
Gainesville police say there have been over 30 cases of identity theft in just the past month, and one restaurant in Gainesville has put about 400 customers in danger of being victims of identity theft.
It's the rumor going around town.
"I heard that some guy used his debit card at Golden Chick and supposedly about $400 was taken out of his account," Maegan Puetz told us.
So instead of going to Golden Chick, Maegan and her friend, Ellanie, went somewhere else to eat, because, as we learned Tuesday, bank officials say Golden Chick has been a place where 400 of its customers were in danger of identity theft between October and mid-November.
First State Bank in Gainesville received a number of phone calls from their customers about transactions they never made. It turned out they were victims of fraud.
"What we understand would have happened is someone who would frequent the restaurant on a particular day, their card information was also captured, and basically the magnetic strip, and they reproduced the plastic with that magnetic strip information on it, and then used it and other locations, creating fraudulent transactions," says Tim Turbeville, Senior VP at First State Bank of Gainesville.
First State Bank then investigated all of their customers' accounts and found there were more people in danger than they expected.
"We had a list of accounts that reported the fraud, so we pulled transactions back from an earlier point in time, and we noticed that a common denominator that all these customers went to Golden Chick," Turbeville says.
Now First State Bank is taking a proactive approach by currently notifying those 400 customers and issuing new debit cards.
Golden Chick goes owner Dee Lee says she gave the Gainesville Police Department surveillance video, and they found nothing connected to the restaurant. Click here to read MORE
Watch how hand held skimmers are used to skim customer credit cards
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GREAT ARTICLE!!! Thank you for keeping the public informed!!!
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Deborah