Credit fraud suspected at Bella Terra

The Fullerton Police Department has announced that a group of criminals has been committing credit card fraud in Huntington Beach and Fullerton through the use of “card skimmers.”

When the illegal device is slipped into the card slot on an ATM, it can capture personal identification numbers (or PINs) when a customer uses the machine.

The skimmer records the data on a microchip.

It is later used to make false debit cards, and the perpetrators begin to withdraw funds from the victim’s account.

A skimmer was believed to be installed on an ATM at the Bella Terra Bank of America branch at Beach Boulevard and Edinger Avenue on Sept. 21, Huntington Beach police said.

Afterward, the same type of skimmer was installed on a machine in Fullerton.

Surveillance photos showed those who used the bogus ATM cards were in their 20s, cleanshaven and well-dressed, police said.

The last widespread rash of fraud occurred in Huntington Beach two years ago, when more than $90,000 was siphoned from about 70 customers’ bank accounts after they patronized a Ralphs supermarket on Goldenwest Street.

Anyone with any information is asked to call Det. Benjamin Lira of the Fullerton Police Department at (714) 738-6786.