Millions lost in credit card skimming scam

Western Australia residents have lost millions of dollars to credit card fraud, it has emerged.

Thousands of people in Western Australia have fallen victim to a credit card scam, it has been revealed.

Under the fraud operation, ATMs and EFTPOS machines at several branches of McDonald's have been compromised following the installation of skimming devices in which people's bank account and credit card details were recorded.

Don Heise, of the state's police major fraud squad, points out that more than $3 million has been stolen from consumers' accounts, with some 3,000 people affected by the Australian banking scam.

"This year is the first time we've had any skimming to this extent both at ATMs earlier in year and now at EFTPOS machines," he claims.

The news follows comments made earlier this month by Elvis Tudos, chief inspector of the Romanian police force, who claimed that eastern European gangs see Australia as "an easy target" to carry out fraudulent activity as the punishment of such crime is seen to be relatively lenient.

As such, he urged people to be on the lookout for skimming device and for banks to tighten up their security procedures.

Posted by Nate Sawyer