Man Seen Installing Skimming Device at Washington Heights Bank: Police

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — Police are trying to identify a man who attempted to install a skimming device at a bank in Washington Heights.

The man entered a Bank of America branch on the 4000 block of Broadway in September and began tampering with one of the ATM machines, police told Patch. After looking at the ATM surveillance footage, police discovered that the man was attempting to install a skimming device on the machine, police said.

Skimmers are devices installed on ATM machines designed to record private information about credit and debit cards such as card and PIN numbers, according to the security blog Krebs on Security. According to Krebs on Security the devices come in a number of different forms and can record the valuable financial information in a variety of ways.

Employees at the Bank of America noticed the skimming device installed on the machine and alerted the police, who recovered the device, police said. Police believe that the device was removed before it was able to steal anybody's information.

The man who tampered with the Bank of America ATM is wanted for criminal possession of a forgery device, police said. Police described the man as 6-feet tall. He was last seen wearing a gray t-shirt, baseball cap, and blue jeans.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) and entering TIP577. All tips are confidential.

Photo: NYPD