Hacking Impact Spreads

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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 3:40 pm

Saturday, Mar 15, 2008

Hacking's impact spreads

By BILL BOWEN
Star-Telegram staff writer

The apparent ATM hacking of local bank accounts has spread to Naval Air Station Fort Worth, where as many as 200 service members have had money surreptitiously withdrawn from their accounts.

The scam may be a continuation of an ATM breach at OmniAmerican Bank, investigators said. Last week, employees at Lockheed Martin and Bell Helicopter with accounts at Fort Worth Community Credit Union saw their accounts tapped.

Naval air station officials have sent out e-mail alerts, and department leaders are warning their military members to watch their bank accounts carefully. The victims have accounts at financial institutions such as Bank of America, USAA and the Navy Federal Credit Union. The common link seems to be that all had used a OmniAmerican ATM on the base.

An OmniAmerican executive said that the bank has alerted Visa, through which the transactions seemed to have been accomplished.

"Even though our investigation is still ongoing, we have been in touch with Visa so that they can notify other financial institutions so that they can notify their customers through alerts," said Randi Mitchell, vice president of marketing at OmniAmerican.

Randy Noell said he was surprised when the Navy Federal Credit Union asked whether he was making purchases at a Victoria's Secret in Maryland.

"The credit union canceled my card, but not before it cost me about $830," said Noell, a petty officer first class with the base's military police.

About 30 people had been affected when authorities first became aware of the problem last week, said Don Ray, public-affairs officer for the base.

But that number has grown in recent days, said Noell, who has been taking statements from victims as he helps with the investigation. The matter has been referred to the Navy Criminal Investigative Service, base officials said.

None of the victims will be out of pocket, the credit union said.

OmniAmerican had its database hacked in January. The hackers, apparently operating from Eastern Europe, poked into "fewer than 100" accounts but prompted the bank to reissue 40,000 debit cards. The gang got account numbers and PINs, then created fake debit cards.

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 3:55 pm

This looks very much like card skimming

http://www.safefromscams.co.uk/CardSkimmingFraud.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDSaqnyW5Vg

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 3:23 am

Sounds to intelligent to be a Vlad. It sounds more like Russian organized crime don't you think?

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:48 am

It depends really, I know in the UK we have had loads of instances of skimming and lots of them have been done by poorly organized Eastern European gangs. The equipment is very easy to use so anyone with half a brain cell could probably pull it off.
It's a good reminder to always check the ATM and if you are concerned go and talk to the bank.