Police urge public to use caution at ATMs

Officers of the Fraud Squad are again urging the public to be careful when using ATMs and point-of-sale machines in stores to avoid being skimmed. The latest warning comes after reports of skimming at banks in and around Port of Spain.

On Wednesday, Newsday spoke with Fraud Squad police who said they were not aware of an upsurge of card skimming over the past few weeks, but called on people to be cautious and vigilant.

One officer said while skimmers could strike anywhere, ATM users should cover their personal identification numbers with their hands.

"If you have to use the ATM, you need to do a little physical examination of the machine before using it. Pay attention to who is around you and looking over your shoulder.

"In terms of pushing the physical card into the slot, sometimes skimmers install a duplicate card slot over the genuine one. So just tug on the slot, and if you suspect anything might be out of place just go to another ATM.

"For point-of-sale machines, it's important that you keep your card in view at all times. So when you hand it to the merchant, ensure the shopkeeper isn't swiping another machine out of your view to record the information."

Newsday attempted to contact Republic Bank for confirmation on whether they received reports that any of their ATM machines were tampered with but those attempts were unsuccessful.