Two Sylvania Township ATMs were targeted by thieves using a scanning device to steal customers' bank card information and then they withdrew nearly $50,000 from Fifth Third Bank and KeyBank.

In the first known incident in northwest Ohio of so-called skimming, Petru Adrian Vascan and Vasile Ciocan placed digital devices on automated teller machines in November, according to a U.S. Secret Service agent's affidavit filed this week in U.S. District Court in Toledo.

The scanning devices, which snared customer names, account numbers, and security codes, were at the Fifth Third Bank on West Central Avenue east of McCord Road and at the KeyBank on West Central Avenue about a mile west in front of the Meijer store, the affidavit said.

The information was used then to withdraw more than $9,000 from accounts of 15 KeyBank customers from an ATM in Westlake, Ohio, the affidavit said. More money was withdrawn at other times.

Mr. Vascan of Troy, Mich., was charged this week with a felony count of intent to defraud, and a warrant is out for his arrest. Federal officials continue to investigate Mr. Ciocan, who is of Roma-nian descent and is believed to be linked to organized crime in that Eastern European country, according to the affidavit.

Skimming has proliferated as technology has become more advanced and as palm-sized devices have been used to collect data from credit cards at restaurants in larger cities, said David Bauer of the U.S. Attorney Office in Toledo.

Neither Mr. Bauer nor Greg Patton, resident agent in charge of the Secret Service office in Toledo, would comment on the case yesterday. Spokesmen for Fifth Third Bank and KeyBank declined to discuss details.

Generally, though, ATM skimmers place scanners over the slot where customers insert their cards that reads all data from magnetic strips on the backs of cards. They also use devices that fit over the ATM's keypad so they can get personal identification number data, or they may train cameras hidden by brochure boxes on the keypads, Mr. Patton said.

Thieves then sell the information they gather, which can either be temporarily stored on the scanner or sent by signal to a device nearby, or they encode duplicate cards, Mr. Patton said.

KeyBank, for example, has fraud protection systems that recognize transaction activity and detects all cardholders that may have been affected, and they are contacted about any problems and reimbursed, said Michael Sherman, spokesman.

Both Mr. Sherman and Karen Fraker, senior vice president of Fifth Third Bank, warned customers to never give their personal identification numbers to anyone.

Customers should inspect all ATMs before using them for unusual signs, improperly installed card readers, traces of durable tape or glue, and other abnormalities, Ms. Fraker said.

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