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To: Zardoz who wrote (73756)	7/21/2001 10:41:44 AM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116753

New Debit Card Scam Discovered At Canada 7-Eleven By Lori Coolican The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon, Canada) thestarphoenix.com 7-21-1 A former employee of a Saskatoon 7-Eleven store has been charged with fraud in connection with a hi-tech debit card scam that resulted in an unknown number of customers losing money right out of their bank accounts. The 23-year-old man was supposed to appear in provincial court Wednesday but didn't show up, said Saskatoon police spokesperson Const. Grant Little. Police are seeking a warrant for the man's arrest. His name will be released once he has made his first court appearance. Darrel Olbort lost $500 to the scam three weeks after using his bank card to make a purchase at the 7-Eleven on Second Avenue. "I watch usually when my debit card goes through, I keep an eye on it to make sure they're not doing something funny, and from what I can remember (a clerk) just swiped it through the debit machine ... like normal," Olbort said. The scheme, which appears to be new to Saskatoon, was accomplished with a hand-held "skimmer" device about the size of a debit card, Little said. A customer's card is swiped across it and the tiny machine saves the account information. A plastic card is made later, then a black strip containing the stolen information is applied to the new card. All that's left is the PIN number punched in by the customer. Little said no one is sure how the PIN number was obtained, but "presumably (the culprit) was peeking," Little said. The stolen debit card information may have been sold to other parties who were capable of producing authentic-looking bank cards - leading to the possibility that the scheme was organized, he said. "There's certainly that potential." Customers from all of the major banks were affected by the scheme. Commercial crimes investigators are working with the banks to trace the extent of the scam, and more information will likely be released next week, Little said. Trish Lee, communications manager for 7-Eleven Canada, said the allegation has surfaced at only one location and was traced to a new employee. "It was actually one of our sales assistants that noticed something illegal going on," she said. "This has never happened before and we all want to make sure it doesn't happen again." Royal Bank public affairs officer Wafa Kadri said 12 of Royal's Saskatoon customers were hit by the fraud, while an unknown number of others had to replace their cards to prevent losses. The bank has monitoring systems to catch this type of scheme whenever possible, she explained. "I guess they work." A Royal Bank customer, who didn't want her name used, said she was glad to know the monitoring system was in place after her card was cancelled and she found out about the fraud. She didn't lose any money. "I'm impressed with the way the bank's taking care of it," she said. "But I said to the (teller), 'What is there to protect this from happening again?' and she said, 'You know, if people find out how to do it again it'll happen again.'" An acquaintance told her she'd been through the same procedure with her bank, she said, "so I asked about it at the Royal Bank, how many cards had been cancelled, and they just said, 'a lot.'" Kadri said the Royal Bank's corporate security department works closely with police on the issue. "Our clients, who are victimized by this type of fraud, aren't responsible for the financial losses," she said. "The only thing that we would recommend is that, because client cards cannot be used without the knowledge of PIN numbers, we encourage our clients to take every precaution to keep this number confidential and make every attempt to be able to shield this number when they're making a purchase with their card." Little said consumers shouldn't only take care to protect their PIN numbers from prying eyes. They should also keep an eye on their debit cards during the transactions, because the "skimmer" requires the thief to swipe the card a second time.