One Bulgarian and One Romanian Busted In Siem Reap for Stealing Lots of Money From ABA's ATM

According to freshnewsasia, two foreigners, a Romanian and a Bulgarian busted in Siem Reap for stealing Cambodian ATM PIN codes and withdrew a lot of money from ABA’s ATM.

Police said the arrest of the two foreigners was carried after the investigation and confession by the foreigners on 30 January 2016 at police station in Siem Reap. During the arrest of the two foreigners, who have been reported to have stolen Cambodian PIN code and withdrew a lot of money at ABA’s ATM located at Art Center Market, police had cooperated with ABA Bank.

Police said, the two foreigners had been withdrawing the money from the ATM a few times already, on 5 and 6 December 2016. They stole the ATM PIN codes at Art Center Market and Monorum Chas restaurant and then they withdrew the money in Laos. They said they only withdrew 13700 USD, but according to Cambodian victims, they have lost 21000 USD.

Note, on 26 December 2015 these two foreigners came to steal the ATM PIN codes at the Art Center Market. Tourism polices had involved in arresting these two foreigners too.

They were scanning card info. Sneaky bastards.

Nice to see what they equipment looks like.

bumped into some people here in sihanoukville today outside the salon i go to to get a cut n shave, they told me their card had been scanned and all the money taken out their account twice (bank sorted it out but, have to be careful) not sure if it was here or SR where it happened

Jamie_Lambo wrote:bumped into some people here in sihanoukville today outside the salon i go to to get a cut n shave, they told me their card had been scanned and all the money taken out their account twice (bank sorted it out but, have to be careful) not sure if it was here or SR where it happened

These 2 fools owe them some money.

This is why it pays to be pretty vigorous when testing an ATM card slot for tampering before using it. Ideally, you want to use a machine that's inside a bank where it's harder to tamper with. The worst choices are those temporary machines attached to shops but outside in their own little kiosks.

Never let anyone run your card out of your sight. Never let them swipe your card in two machines inside a store (the second one is the cloning machine).

I wish I had a pic of one I used in Ethiopia. It was literally sitting on cinder blocks.

Another thing that happened a lot there was the ATM would "time out" after you'd put in your pin and were waiting for your cash. Then it would go back to the default screen and spit out your card like nothing happened. No error messages. No receipt. Nothing.

Sketch central.

It's amazing how many people punch in their PIN numbers using one finger while standing back from the machine. WTF? It's totally readable. I lean into the machine, position fingers of both hands over the numbers in a particular pattern and "touch-type" the numbers in totally without looking. Takes some practice but I feel a little bit more secure.

ATM scammers thwarted in Siem Reap

A Romanian and a Bulgarian were arrested at the weekend for allegedly installing card-skimming devices at ATMs in Siem Reap, one of which they used to withdraw more than $10,000 in cash in neighbouring Laos.

According to Hok Bunhav, a deputy chief with Siem Reap police, the pair set up their first skimming operation at an Advanced Bank of Asia (ABA) ATM near Monorom restaurant in Siem Reap between January 5 and 6, using one device to record account numbers and another to lift users’ pin codes.

The equipment in place, the pair travelled to Laos and withdrew $10,000 before returning to tamper with another ABA machine near the Art Centre on January 26, where they were caught four days later after a tip-off by the bank, according to Bunhav.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/a ... -siem-reap

Even the Khmer Made-Up Times has picked it up:

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/20855/ ... atm-theft/

Also from CD

https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bulg ... am-107129/