Police have held two suspects in connection with last week's Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) skimming scam. The men-aged 18 and 27, from Madras Road, St Helena Village, Piarco-were held on Tuesday night. Public information officer of the Police Service Sgt Wayne Mystar, who confirmed the arrests during yesterday's police daily news briefing, declined to reveal any further information.
He said: "The arrests followed as a result of painstaking enquiries by members of the Fraud Squad, working closely with the Bankers' Association to apprehend those responsible for the scam. "I do not want to compromise the investigation by answering any further questions."
On Monday Mystar said the police Cyber Crime Unit and the Fraud Squad had been brought in to work with Crime Stoppers and the Bankers' Association (BATT) to find and prosecute the perpetrators of the scam, discovered on July 6. Last Friday, scores of bank-account holders were contacted by their banks and told they needed to replace their cards, which may have been compromised after they tried to use an ATM in central Trinidad.
Police said a skimming device had been used to capture the PINs of customers' cards and steal money. BATT president Richard Young said an investigation had been launched into the matter, which had affected the entire banking industry.