The Next Time You Swipe:Police warn over card skimming syndicate

Be on the lookout the next time you swipe your card. This is the warning credit and debit card holders will have to bear in mind after police in the city received complaints of alleged thefts at ATMs and in shops. Last month, three customers discovered cash had been withdrawn from their accounts using their debit and credit cards, which they had earlier used to shop at a mobile phone shop in Nairobi.
The Star has established at least two employees of FoneXpress had been implicated in the syndicate. They have since been suspended by their employer and questioned by the police. A senior manager at FoneXpress, Neel Pattni, confirmed that one of their employees had been linked to the crimes and that the company had acted appropriately by terminating her employment. But a third suspect captured on CCTV cameras trying to use skimmed cards is still at large.
In the most recent incident, customer Vijay Shah bought a mobile phone from a shop in Westgate mall with his Prime Bank card. Six days later, two individuals, one of them an axed employee of the mobile phone shop, were captured on CCTV cameras trying to use Shah's card to buy household goods worth Sh25,000 at the Nakumatt Prestige on Ngong Road.
Another customer is alleged to have bought a phone using his CFC Bank credit card, only to discover that close to Sh1 million had been withdrawn from his account. The fraudsters had used his card as far away as Malindi. In July last year, five Bulgarians were arrested and 19 fake ATM cards found on them in a police operation targeting fraudsters. The five were arrested at a bar in Westlands moments after they had withdrawn thousands of shillings from ATMs in the city.
Police suspect unscrupulous employees in some companies have been colluding with criminals who obtain credit and debit card information using sophisticated card skimming devices. “Investigations of this nature are wide and we have to follow different grilling patterns to establish just how wide the syndicate is spread,” said police spokesman Erick Kiraithe.
Skimming devices can be attached to ATMs or other machines with credit card scanners. The devices pick up information that makes the victim susceptible to credit fraud or identity theft.
Experts say criminals will always place the skimming device over the slot so that it supersedes the bank’s device and gets the card information before the bank does. To counter this, the experts advise clients to always cover the keypad on ATMs when entering a PIN number. It is claimed that criminals place very tiny and hard-to-detect pinhole cameras near the keypad, allowing them to steal PIN numbers and card information as customers cue in secret codes. Banks have begun upgrading ATM systems to the PIN and chip mode to ensure fraudsters do not access clients money.

The Kenya Bankers Association official Habil Olaka yesterday said the EMV standards is the safest technology to combat rising cases of ATM fraud and theft. Kiraithe recommends that customers be on lookout at all times when using credit and debit cards especially when giving out details. He also says that most fraudsters will use fake cards at night when most attendants will not be keen to carry out verifications.