KEY POINTS:
Police and banking investigators say thieves in an international criminal network are using Auckland money machines to defraud British customers.
The fraudsters are believed to be working within a criminal ring involving British service workers, stealing money from credit cards in the latest "skimming" ring to affect the
country.
ASB Bank investigator Ross Anderson told the Herald the thieves had been recorded on security footage at two automatic teller machines in Wyndham St in the city and in Newmarket. They had also been seen using two Westpac machines but could have tried others.
The scammers are withdrawing money using "dummy" credit cards which appear similar but are white, as well as phone cards.
Their scam works by using a dishonest service worker who records the details of the credit cards as British victims pay for other transactions, by swiping the credit card through another machine which records the card's details in a process known as skimming.
From there, card details are downloaded to a computer and the details are recorded on to the blank cards and can then be used as doubles of real credit cards.
The offenders recorded in Auckland have used the new cards to withdraw cash.
Mr Anderson said he was aware of about 50 cards that had been retained by money machines around Greater Auckland area, effectively denying the thieves money.
New Zealand customers were not victims of the skimming.
ASB Bank became aware of the scam weeks ago when workers doing maintenance on the machines found the false cards.
Because the bank was only aware of the cards that did not work, it was not known how many other attempts had been made or how much money had been stolen, Mr Anderson said.
A similar syndicate was caught operating in Auckland last year. Its members had been paying service station attendants along a stretch of motorways in Britain to copy credit card details during transactions.
Mr Anderson said that group was caught, but it was possible the latest skimming efforts were linked to those offenders.
Catching the Auckland fraudsters was the most anyone could do to stop the offending, he said.
"There's not a lot you can do. If it is like the last group of offenders, they're not New Zealanders, so we're relying on random luck of somebody observing them."
* Anyone who can identify the people in the photographs, or who sees someone using a white credit card at a money machine, is asked to contact Roy Parker of the Auckland fraud squad on (09) 302-6400.
HOW SCAM WORKS
* A dishonest worker in Britain swipes credit card details through a machine, which records the details.
* The crime syndicate creates a dummy card using the skimmed credit card information.
* It then pays New Zealanders to use the dummy cards to withdraw cash from money machines in Auckland.
