Braintree police warn of ATM scammer

BRAINTREE, Mass, (WHDH) -- The search is on for a high-tech thief in Braintree after a customer discovered a fake ATM card reader and a hidden camera.

The ATM scammer hit the Citizens Bank branch on Washington Street.

Braintree police say a resident uncovered the scam when he came to get some cash Saturday night. The man was going to use his card to gain access to the ATM, but when he inserted it, it got stuck.

“He pulled the card out, yanked on it and the plate came right off the wall. Come to find out that the plate was actually a counterfeit plate. It was put there surreptitiously and illegally reading the card,” Chief Russell Jenkins, Braintree Police Department.

Investigators also found a tiny camera on the ATM itself, which recorded customers punching in pin numbers.

Braintree police have not released any security camera images yet.

Police in Gloucester say a suspect committed the same type of crime at a Citizens Bank there. It's unclear if the cases are connected.

Citizens Bank is urging customers to closely monitor accounts. The bank says,

"The small number of potentially affected customers are being notified and reissued new cards, and will be reimbursed for any activity that did not initiate."

But police believe they caught this in time.

“We don’t believe that anything was compromised because we think that all that information was stored on the two different devices,” Chief Jenkins said.

Chief Jenkins also believes the skimmer and the camera were hooked up only a short time; less than 24 hours.