CoastHills Federal Credit Union announced that its customers who were victims in a recent skimmer case will not be liable for fraudulent transactions under its “zero liability policy.”
And the company is also issuing new credit and debit cards to its customers who want them, at branches from Lompoc, Vandenberg, Santa Maria and SLO.
“CoastHills,” the company said, “is partnering with law enforcement, including the FBI, to resolve an incident involving a skimming device found on CoastHills Automated Teller Drive-up Machines [ATM] Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015, in Santa Maria and Lompoc. The affected machines were located at the Lompoc branch on the corner of H Street and Central Avenue and the Santa Maria branch on Broadway and Stowell.”
These particular skimmer devices, the company said, fit right over an ATM’s card reader and look identical to the actual reader. “The CoastHills Incident response team, and NCR, the ATM manufacturer, completed inspections of the entire CoastHills ATM network immediately upon discovery of the skimmers, including ATMs at the Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo airports and Marian Regional Medical Center.
“We are partnering with law enforcement to fully resolve the issue, including the FBI, who told us that this type of sophisticated skimming device is new territory to them,” said Paul Cook, CoastHills’ chief information officer.
CoastHills has surveillance video of the ATMs at both of its effected branches and contain images of the suspects, and has provided those to law enforcement.
Skimmer devices come in a variety of models, some that attach inside the machine and others that attach to the outside. In the past, such skimmers have been detected on machines at a bank in Los Osos and at gas stations throughout the county.
