Yahoo Finance Thief steals $9,000 from credit card holders
A man in Melbourne has stolen almost $9,000 by skimming credit cards.
Detectives from Stonnington Crime Investigation Unit called on the public for help identifying the man who visited a dozen ATMs across Melbourne to withdraw cash between December 2021 and March 2022.
Investigators have released CCTV footage of the man, in hopes of catching the thief.
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Victoria Police described the man as Caucasian in appearance, aged in his 30s and of a medium/solid build.
He was often wearing a black New York Yankees baseball cap, blue surgical mask, black hoodie with white writing across the chest, blue denim jeans and black/white Adidas joggers when captured by ATM cameras.
Victims told police they did not know when or how their bank cards had been skimmed.
The thief took out a total of $8,790 from ATMs in Toorak, South Yarra, Box Hill, Richmond, Springvale, Fairfield and Melbourne’s CBD.
Check your credit card statements
Many people are at risk of losing money to these kinds of scams because they don’t check their credit card statements.
A concerning 8 per cent of Australian credit card holders never check their activity, leaving them wide open to cases of identity theft.
According to the data from Finder, around 2 per cent of credit card holders had their bills set to autopay and never checked their credit card accounts.
Another 6 per cent would log in to pay their balances but never checked the activity on their accounts.
Once people spot suspicious activity on their accounts, banks can freeze accounts and investigate the issues.
“Turning a blind eye towards your statements paves the way for potential overcharges, late fees, unauthorised charges or, even worse, identity-theft behaviour – all of which can affect your credit score,” Amy Bradney-George, credit card expert at Finder, said.
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