Warning for ATM Users

 By: Liz Tufts

A warning for ATM users in Smithfield.  Police are trying to catch a man who was caught on camera, putting a device on an ATM, that can steal  debit and pin numbers.

This is the man who police say placed a skimming device and remote camera on an ATM at this bank ri on putnam pike in Smithfield, trying to gain access to customers debit and pin numbers.

After about an hour, a customer alerted police after noticing something strange, but during that time.

Police say dozens of people swiped their cards.

Vic Pichette owns Genesis Investigations based out of North Kingstown. He says while skimming devices have been around for ages, they are becoming more and more sophisticated.

“The most sophisticated ones actually duplicate everything in the actual machine does but only better they replace it with a part that has a camera a microchip in it and it reads and sees everything that you’re doing, “ says Pichette.

There are steps to take to protect yourself the next time you withdraw some cash.

“When they are positioning the camera, they are positioning it somewhere where they can see your hand typing in the key pad so if you just covered your hand every time and typed in your number that would prevent that camera from seeing it, “ says Pichette.

Pichette also says you should change your pin number every month just in case it’s been jeopardized.

Smithfield police are sending that skimming device and camera to a digital forensic lab, hoping to trace the man’s fingerprints.