Three men charged with ATM Pin fraud in Winnipeg

Between October 24th and November 8th, 2010, several incidents involving the theft and tampering of point of sale PIN Pads occurred at various merchant locations within the City of Winnipeg.

On October 31st 2010, three suspects allegedly attended to a business in the 1600 block of Regent Avenue West and stole the businesses point of sale PIN Pad, while replacing it with an inoperable PIN Pad. The investigation has revealed that the suspects planned on tampering with the stolen PIN Pad and returning it at a later time in order to steal credit/debit card information. After the theft occurred, staff noticed that the replaced PIN Pad was not functioning properly and subsequently contacted Police.

Members of the Winnipeg Police Service Commercial Crime Unit became involved in the investigation.

On November 8th, 2010, all three suspects were arrested at the James Richardson International Airport. At the time of their arrest they were found to be in possession of the following items:

· Electronic components used in the tampering of PIN pads which, once installed, would allow the capture of debit/credit card numbers as well as customers personal identification numbers
· Tools required to complete the PIN pad tampers
· Four stolen PIN Pads
· Various electronic storage devices commonly used to store stolen debit/credit card data

On November 22, 2010, as a result of the continuing investigation, all three suspects were arrested a second time and charged with further offences.

Jonathan Didier STAINFIL, 25 years, Mohamed Ali MAROCCHI 22 years and Alan Walter DANA 21 years, all of Quebec,have been charged the following offences:

· Conspiracy to commit indictable offence
· Possess instrument for use in forging credit cards
· Possession property obtained by crime
· Theft under $5,000.00
· Obtain or possess the identity information of another person (DANA only)

The Winnipeg Police Service would like to remind businesses to conduct daily integrity checks of their point of sale PIN Pads and to be cognisant as to the placement of these devices. Keeping point of sale devices secured or out of sight behind the counter is a necessary measure to combat this type of crime.

In the event that a PIN Pad has been “switched” or stolen immediately advise your Service Provider and notify police.