Nassau police warn of skimming scam

Nassau County police arrested two men on Monday they said stole more than $17,000 from various ATM customers by placing skimming devices both on automated teller machines and on bank doors where customers slide their debit and credit cards.

Stefanita T. Macau, 27, and Teodora A. Paslan, 32, were pulled over and arrested in Hicksville after Citibank employees in Levittown saw them enter the bank and retrieve what they thought were skimming devices, police said. The employees got the vehicle license plate number and called police.

Det. Lt. Kevin Smith, the department spokesman, said at a Tuesday news conference that it looked like the devices had been in place since Dec. 2 or 3 at Citibank locations in Levittown, East Meadow, Garden City and South Huntington since.

"Normally these devices we find are on the machines themselves," Smith said. In this case, there was one on the door as well -- it even bore the Citibank logo.

"What they do is they have a skimming device pasted over the device in order to get into the bank."

At the ATM, a long strip of plastic with a small camera and several batteries inside was attached to the top of the machines to survey customers as they entered their personal identification numbers.

"So they retrieve your card information at the front door, and they retrieve your PIN number when you go up to the machine itself. It used to be done all at once," Smith added.

Smith mentioned that the cooperation of Citibank, the Crimes Against Property Squad, Eighth Squad detectives and Garden City police contributed to the arrests. Smith said it hasn't been determined how many customers were affected, but police are working with Citibank to investigate.

"One of the things I suggest is the places where you put your card in, you might want to touch those places first and see if they come off in your hand," Smith said. "If they come off in your hand, obviously there's something wrong here."

Police advise customers to cover the keypad when entering their PIN and to examine the places they slide their card.

Macau and Paslan are scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday on charges of third-degree grand larceny and criminal possession of forgery devices in First District Court in Hempstead.