Crime & Safety

ATM Card Scammers Still Sought by Police

According EG Police Chief Tom Coyle, the two men caught on surveillance videos at Coastway Bank may be part of a larger group doing this scam across the country.


Police and FBI officials are still investigating an ongoing scam involving fake bank cards programmed with stolen bank account information used a three East Greenwich banks.

According to EG Police Chief Tom Coyle, the Boston office of the FBI is involved as well as police departments from other R.I. cities and towns. 

"It may be a group of individuals who are traveling around the country doing this," said Coyle Thursday.

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East Greenwich Police said two suspects allegedly withdrew money from other people's accounts at Coastway Community Bank.

According to police, two men entered the bank located at 5750 Post Road a few minutes apart. They each used blank ATM cards with magnetic strips and accessed customer bank accounts. The suspects fraudulently took an undetermined amount of cash.

Then, on Oct. 1, a North Providence woman told police someone had withdrawn money from her Citizens Bank account using an ATM at the Pawtucket Credit Union on Post Road in East Greenwich. 

Find out what's happening in East Greenwichwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The next day, a West Warwick man told police someone withdrew $200 from his bank account using an ATM at Sovereign Bank on Main Street in EG.

ATMs in other places in Rhode Island have also been targeted by men who look like the men from the Coastway incidents. In one case, a man walked into the BankRI in the Turks Head Building in Providence recently and used a counterfeit card at an ATM. The card contained information from an East Providence Residents' Navigant Credit Union account.

Both East Greenwich suspects are described as men with a medium build and light skin. If you have any information about the suspects please contact East Greenwich Police Det. Glen Terilli 886-8685.


 


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