Debit card scams hit shoppers in tech-savvy valley

Should it be a surprise that the technology used in this ID Theft scam originated in "Silicone Valley"?

By Jessie Mangaliman and Mark Gomez
Mercury News

In the time it takes to pay for a bag of groceries or a tank of gas, thieves can empty your bank account. It happens when you swipe your debit card.

That's the hard lesson customers of a Silicon Valley gas station and grocery store have learned in recent weeks following two major cases of identity theft using stolen personal information from debit cards.

As the number of victims topped 200 Friday, and police warned to expect more, experts say the thefts underscore that even a tech-savvy region is hardly immune from a problem that is becoming all too common across the country.....

....It's unclear how, but police said the thieves may have swapped a debit-card-reading machine at one or more of the store's checkout stands, or installed small, easily hidden skimming devices that collect a shopper's card number and personal identification codes. The thieves then typically use the information to make new debit cards, often out of gift cards, old credit cards or any card with a magnetic strip...

...Lunardi's customers first began reporting the thefts Sunday. Cash withdrawals were reportedly made from ATMs in Southern California. Los Gatos police detective Dave Gravel said police are still trying to determine how much money was stolen.

(Full text at Mercury News.com)

My guess is very few of the over 200 victims had Identity Theft protection services because most people think "it can't happen to me" which is due to blissfull ignorance, a term coined by a Doctor at the University of Iowa. The less people know or understand about a problem, the less they fear it.

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City gets its 1st 'identity theft' case

When I first saw the article title I thought where in the world could this be? Actually since I work in the US and Canada, this was the continent I was thinking of. However, it still surprised me that this was the 1st case reported.

"The complainant, whose name was not disclosed by the cops, has alleged that an independent party had used his name and address as proof to open an account with one of the branches of a private bank in the city and transactions to the tune of around Rs 1 crore had taken place through it. " (Full Text at www.timesofindia.com)

A crore, according to Wikipeia and my math is right, is 10 million rupees which equals $246,736.49 U.S. If I messed up the calculation, someone let me know,

Personally, I'm surprised this isn't the first case investigated in India since we outsource so may telecommunications services there. I thought by now, we would have definitely had some reported Id Theft in the U.S. originating from India or Pakistan