Surveillance video catches credit card thieves

DAPHNE, Ala. (WALA) - When a Mobile woman got her credit card statement recently she received a nasty surprise: hundreds of dollars in fraudulent charges.

It’s a crime anyone can become a victim of. In this case, Daphne police have surveillance video and they're looking for your help.

Suspects caught on tape

Surveillance video shows two men walking into the Daphne Wal Mart. Police tell us they were there buying hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards with a stolen credit card.

Lt. Jud Beedy, with Daphne police said a woman called in a report of her card being fraudulently used.

Beedy said, “Her number had been stolen and the last time she remembered using her credit card was at a gas station in Mobile to get gasoline.”

"Skimmer" used?

The gas station may be an important clue in this mystery.

Thieves can use skimmer devices attached to gas pumps to steal card information.

Skimmers can attach to credit card and debit card readers and read the information on the magnetic strip and store it. A separate camera, strategically placed, can read unwitting card users' PIN numbers as they put them in.

Police are investigating if that’s what happened in this case.

“She’s still got possession of her credit card so obviously they stole her number and obviously it looks like they were able to make credit cards so yeah there’s a possibility there was a skimmer on the gas station over there,” Lt. Beedy said.

For Daphne Police, cases of credit card fraud are a near-daily occurrence. It’s a crime that anyone is vulnerable to.

“As much information that’s out there, your personal information is out there now, it’s just going to happen and it’s going to continue to happen,” Lt. Beedy told us.

Cases difficult to crack

In this case, as with many like it, it took a couple of weeks before the victim saw the charges on her statement.

That can leave investigators with a cold trail and the thieves in the clear. But not this time; the surveillance video was saved and police hope you can give them the identity of the two men.