Brisbane link in ATM probe

Bank of New Zealand investigators looking into the country's first skimming of ATMs have asked Australian police about possible links to a similar fraud in Queensland.

Last month, Brisbane police arrested four men after a skimming device was found attached to an ATM in the city. The men were caught before banks went public with details of the Auckland fraud, in which more than $100,000 has been stolen from accounts.

Acting Inspector Graham Clark, of the Brisbane police fraud and corporate crime group, said he had been contacted by New Zealand bank investigators seeking information on the Queensland case.

Four Canadian residents of east European origin have been charged with dishonesty offences. A search of their Gold Coast address recovered card-skimming devices, including false face plates for ATMs and keypad overlays with microchips to copy PIN numbers.

Mr Clark did not believe there was any link between the two scams, but said: "It's one of those things that you could probably assume there may be a connection because of the possible similarities between the offences [but] there is no way of knowing if they are linked or not."

BNZ spokeswoman Brenda Newth said the bank was assisting the police investigation.

Detectives still want to speak to a man who bought a large number of phonecards in downtown Auckland on March 26 and 27.

The cards later turned up in money machines with stolen account information copied on them. They were retained because the accounts had been blocked. The man had been living in an Auckland City apartment raided by police on Tuesday.