THE airport customs bureau has seized more than 1,100 skimming devices at the three Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) terminals the past several months, and sounded the alarm that more criminal syndicates may be plotting to steal money from bank clients.
Skimming devices are used as accessory to capture data from the magnetic stripe on the back of an automated teller machine card. The devices used are smaller than a deck of cards and are often fastened in close proximity to, or over the top of, the ATM’s factory-installed card reader.
“ATM skimming is a worldwide problem,” Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña said on Tuesday, following the seizure of 6,000 pieces of beauty products and 180 packages of cosmetics valued at P942,627 at the airport bonded warehouse.
He said some 13 apprehensions of skimming devices were recorded from December 16, 2017 to June 1, 2018, mostly from passengers coming from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia.
“The gadgets come in sets containing one-time password card, SIM cards, bank cards, mobile phones, rubber stamps, ATM pins and other Chinese-scribed documents.”
He said the gadgets seized are used to commit cyber crimes and other forms of bank fraud using online transactions.
A typical device “can steal and close the data, which often results in money laundering by transferring money online through bank-to-bank transactions,” Lapeña added.
Republic Act 8484, or the Access Device Regulation Act of 1998, has prohibited the use of unauthorized access to devices and the unlawful manufacture and distribution of the access device.
He said despite previous arrests and warnings against unscrupulous traders and importers, “there are still many of them who continue to sneak into the country prohibited items.”