Card skimmer found on one Halifax County ATM; another machine tampered with

Police in Weldon said they have found a card-reading device on a frequently used ATM off Interstate 95.

A customer on Sunday noticed something suspicious about the State Employees Credit Union CashPoints machine on U.S. Highway 158 and alerted police.

"They jiggled [the keypad cover] a little bit, and it didn't seem right – kind of old – so they pulled it off. It came off," Weldon Police Chief James Avens said Thursday.

The skimmer reads the account information off the magnetic strip on the back of each ATM card, and it was attached to a cover that wrapped around the keypad. A tiny camera was embedded in the cover to record people entering their personal identification numbers, police said.

Investigators have security video showing two men installing the device last Friday night, Avens said, but they haven't identified them.

"I wasn't surprised," said Kriston Martin, who has used that ATM often. "It's something that's common now, especially in this part of North Carolina. Everybody wants something for nothing, so people will have to do to get what they want."

Weldon police alerted other law enforcement agencies and the State Employees Credit Union, and Enfield Police Chief Tyree Davis said his officers on Wednesday found an ATM that had been tampered with, although no skimmer was found.

An ATM maintenance worker changed the machine's components where a skimmer could have been installed, Davis said, and police sent them to the U.S. Secret Service for examination.

Avens recommended people who used the CashPoints ATM last week contact their banks to see if there has been any unusual activity on their accounts and to request new ATM cards with new ID numbers.

"I'll still use it," Martin said of the ATM, "but I'll just be a little bit more cautious of what's going on around and make sure I'm paying attention to the machine."