Pair admit to eftpos scam

Photo / Greg Bowker

Two Canadian men have admitted their part in an alleged international crime syndicate which secretly modifies eftpos machines in shops to steal customers' credit card details.

The skimmers are alleged to have stolen eftpos terminals and replaced them with "compromised" replicas, often aided by shop staff bribed with money or threatened with violence.

The tampered machines record the bank account details of swiped cards, which are transferred to blank cards.

Pinhole cameras hidden near the eftpos machines or false keypads are used to record the PIN numbers, before the cloned bank cards are used at ATMs to withdraw cash.

Like normal skimming attacks, where bank cards are skimmed by false fronts on ATM machines, victims are often unaware of the fraud until they check their bank balance.

A Canadian trio appeared in Auckland District Court charged with participating in an organised crime group which allegedly stole eftpos PIN pads.

Two of the men, Giovanni Patroni Hernandez and Guillermo Alexis Esquizel Lemus, have pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in October. The third, Jonathon Burrel, is yet to enter a plea.

The inquiry was triggered after one of the main providers of eftpos PIN-pads alerted police that 11 units had been stolen since mid June.

An Australian police taskforce arrested 40 people last week after an inquiry into similar crimes. Police there have advised people to use cash or to sign for transactions instead of using their PINs when using eftpos.