2 Suspected ATM Skimmers Sought By Petaluma Police

PETALUMA, CA — Police asked for the public's help Sunday in identifying two men accused of placing a skimming device on an ATM.

Shortly before 7 a.m. Sunday, the two men placed a card-skimming device into a Bank of America ATM on North McDowell Boulevard in Petaluma, police said.

Police released surveillance images of the two men, and said they were seen driving a silver 2021 Mazda registered to Avis Car Rental.

The suspects identified themselves to the rental agency as Flore Cioara with a California driver’s license and Andrei Bivol with a Romanian driver’s license, police said.

Police asked anyone who recognizes either of the suspects to contact the Petaluma Police Department at 707-778-4372.

According to police, skimming happens when devices illegally installed on ATMs, fuel pumps, self-check-out kiosks and other point-of-sale terminals or fuel pumps, capture data or record cardholders' PINs.

"Criminals use the data to create fake debit or credit cards and then steal from victims’ accounts. It is estimated that skimming costs financial institutions and consumers more than $1 billion each year," police said.

Fuel pump skimmers are usually attached to the internal wiring of the machine and are not visible to the customer. The skimming devices store data to be downloaded or wirelessly transferred later.

To avoid becoming a victim of skimmers when using a gas pump, police said to chose a pump close to the store and in direct view of the gas station attendant. Cardholders can also choose to run their card as credit instead of debit; if that is not an option, police said to cover the keypad when entering a PIN or consider paying for gas inside with the attendant.

More information about ATM card skimmers: