Man wanted after putting skimmer on Haltom City ATM

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Haltom City police are looking for a man they say put a high tech skimmer on an ATM.

Surveillance video shows the man at the ATM inside a convenience store. Police say the skimmer also had a camera for crooks to collect pin codes. The camera also caught an image of the suspect's face.

Criminals have been using magnetic card readers to steal people's credit card information for years. Now, law enforcement in DFW are experiencing a new twist to the crime. Thieves are also using tiny cameras to capture pin numbers.

"It's alarming,” said Haltom City Police Detective Matt Spillane. “I wouldn't say it's surprising."

Inside a busy 7-Eleven in Haltom City, it took a man caught on surveillance camera only seconds to tape a credit card skimmer to an ATM.

"He just has this pocketed. This tiny device and just with double sided tape,” Spillane said. “Looks like he's having issues getting his card to read. He's sticking this in there."

The detective says the video from June 28 shows the man walk up, do a transaction, and then put the skimming device on the ATM. The man walked away and then returned a few minutes later to test the device, making sure it was adhered.

"From the outside, it looks like his card is not reading properly,” Spillane said.

It seems another customer had the same concern. They approached the suspect, possibly asking how much longer he'll be using the machine.

Spillane says that is when the man adds a pinhole camera to the ATM. It’s nearly invisible to the naked eye and is intended to capture pin numbers.

"They're much more easily able to use that information quickly and without having to have the physical card,” Spillane said.

The detective says it's a new trend law enforcement are seeing with cameras supplementing credit card skimmers.

Police provided photos of the camera used in the case, which is now in evidence. A customer recognized the device on the ATM the same day it was installed and got detectives involved before anyone's information could be stolen.

Spillane says this isn't a new crime, but these are new tools being used to commit the crime. In this case, the camera backfired on the suspect. Police now have a selfie of the suspect that was captured on his own camera.

Police say the devices did not transmit any information. There was not a Bluetooth device attached to these devices, but police have seen that before.

The suspect in this case would have had to come back and retrieved the devices to get the card information and pin numbers. That did not happen because someone recognized the devices on the ATM and contacted police.