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Man Posing As Repairman Tampered With ATMs At King Kullen Stores, Police Say

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- There has been another ATM ripoff on Long Island, and this one has a twist – customers were scammed at the supermarket.

As CBS2's Jessica Layton reported, Nassau County police said they are looking for a suspect who posed as a repairman as he placed skimming devices inside ATMs.

Nassau County police said the man wore a uniform bearing the logo of the company that services ATMs for the King Kullen supermarket chain. But police said he is actually a thief who in August opened the ATM and then placed skimmers inside to record customers' account information.

When one customer complained of unknown charges, King Kullen immediately shut down all of its ATMs and is now trying to determine how much was stolen from customers.

"It's bad, it's bad," said Terri Ma of Lynbrook. "You don't want to go anywhere anymore."

The news follows word on Tuesday that customers using outside ATMs at Suffolk County National Bank had been robbed of thousands of dollars – money the bank is restoring.

A spokesman for King Kullen said it is not known how many customers' identities were compromised, but it will not reopen its ATMs until it completes a security overhaul.

"It's exploding," said security expert Anthony Roman.

Roman said an international black market is providing sophisticated keyboard overlays and tiny skimmers that customers generally do not notice.

"Those overlays are placed on by an epoxy, so the criminal actually glues them on and over the card reader that's legitimate; that's in the ATM machine," Roman said.

Roman said it is pretty much an all-bets-off approach when using an ATM anywhere, but there are ways to detect a tampered machine.

"You can kind of wiggle (the card readers), or if they protrude much more than you think they should, be suspect – use a different machine," he said.

ATM user Karen Baker said she should follow that advice, since she usually just worries about getting cash and a receipt.

"I just don't," said Baker, of Rockville Centre. "I just check it and I look at it. I don't shake it or anything."

Meanwhile, police are hoping someone will help identify the thief in ATM repairman disguise.

The four King Kullen stores where ATMs were compromised are in Rockville Centre, Franklin Square, Massapequa Park, and Garden City Park.

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