Partygoers cleaned out by alleged eftpos scam
Published: 11:09AM Tuesday April 10, 2012 Source: ONE News
The four Canadian nationals accused of skimming eftpos cards - Source: ONE News
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Is NZ a soft target for card scammers? (4:33)
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Some victims of an alleged eftpos scam in Auckland have been temporarily cleaned out by fraudsters.
Around 100 BNZ customers, and customers of ASB and Westpac, have had tens of thousands of dollars stolen after their cards were allegedly skimmed in Auckland.
One of the victims, Chris Leggett said he was targeted after having a party in the Brooklyn Bar.
"They ended up leaving me about a hundred dollars in that account," he told ONE News.
An international bank fee on his account tipped him off to the fraud but he was not the only partygoer hit.
"A couple of them have been cleaned out, so they have no money at the moment," he said.
Have you been targeted in the eftpos scam? Email news@tvnz.co.nz
Four Canadian nationals appeared in court this afternoon on fraud charges relating to the incident.
Mario Rivera, Sina Chea, Kevin Roberto Flores Roldan and William Alexander Rivera Rivas were arrested at the weekend.
They face charges including participating in a criminal group and intent to obtain pecuniary advantage dishonestly.
They have not yet entered a plea and have not applied for bail. Police said they would oppose bail while their investigation continues.
They will reappear in court on April 30.
BNZ said the eftpos skimming operation was focussed on one location in Auckland.
Head of security Owen Loeffellechner said data was harvested from one machine and around $ 30,000 was stolen from 100 BNZ customers.
ASB and Westpac account holders have also been affected and the fraud is thought to be even more wide spread.
ASB Customer Allen Hsu told ONE News he lost $ 1500 on Sunday in three separate withdrawals of Canadian dollars and bank fees.
He said the bank acted quickly to replace his card and reimburse him with the stolen money.
Soft target
New Zealand is a soft target for card scammers because payment operators are not as security conscious as they should be, a security expert says.
BNZ rejects the claim but Mako Networks chief executive Bill Farmer told TV ONE's Breakfast today "there's a lot more criminals than there are law enforcement people" and called for action.
His comments follow recent cases of people losing money from their bank accounts after their credit card details were skimmed and sold overseas.
Farmer said the first thing merchants should do is become compliant with a standard called PCI SSC, developed in 2004, which supports materials and tools to enhance credit card security.
"The sooner they become compliant, the better off everyone is going to be and the more secure all the payments are going to be," he said.
"New Zealand has good transactional security, with chip and pin, but anything that is stored on a computer is potentially at risk of being scammed."
Farmer said restaurants in New Zealand need to "catch up" with overseas standards.
"If you go to the Northern Hemisphere, they actually bring [portable] machines to your table so that you put your credit card pin in, so there's no chance that your details can be recorded."
All merchants must be compliant with the standard by 2014.
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