Rob Beschizza
Gear

British Criminal Bugged ATM With MP3 Player

A British fraudster affixed MP3 players to the machines and used them to record tones produced when unsuspecting customers withdrew money, then used the data to clone their credit cards. How awfully polite not to bother them in person. The Times of London reported that his gang targeted freestanding machines that allowed access to the […]

Manny_atm

A British fraudster affixed MP3 players to the machines and used them to record tones produced when unsuspecting customers withdrew money, then used the data to clone their credit cards. How awfully polite not to bother them in person.

The Times of London reported that his gang targeted freestanding machines that allowed access to the cable between the ATM and the bank. Bugging this cable and decoding the frequencies used by the machines amounted to an ingenious scam that yielded $380,000.

Maxwell Parsons, a well-known criminal figure, was jailed for 32 months after pleading guilty at Minshull Street Crown Court to deception and unlawful interception of a public telecommunications transmission.

The fraudster learnt how to carry out the fraud from the example set by criminal gangs in Malaysia where the method of fraud was used with devastating effect against the banking system.

British authorities only discovered the fraud when one of those involved was caught red-handed with phony cards during a traffic stop. The banks, it seems, didn't have a clue.

Hole-in-the-wall Thief used MP3 player [Times]