Credit card skimmer found on Kissimmee ATM at bank where donations taken for slain officers

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Michael Taaffe was at the Sun Trust Bank on Main Street in Kissimmee to make a donation to the families of two officers killed in the line of duty when he found something strange on the bank’s ATM.

He was preparing to withdraw cash for his donation when he noticed the card reader was loose.

“I decided just to check the ATM machine because I heard about (skimmers) through a newscast in the past,” Taaffe said. “The minute I heard the suction, I knew something was funny.”

The card reader popped off when he pulled on it and Taaffe immediately went into the bank to report what he’d found.

“I entered into the bank with this excitement and hollered, ‘Look at what I found,’” he said. “Immediately the bank tellers and managers came out and they were very helpful.”

A Sun Trust Bank spokesperson told Channel 9 that the bank was working with local law enforcement and that no customer data had been compromised by the skimmer.

Taaffe was incredulous that someone would be so brazen in their efforts to steal cash from people like him.

“I’m out here every day working hard,” he said. “I don’t need somebody taking my hard-earned money from my kids.”

Skimmers have been showing up at ATMs and gas stations in an increasing number, investigators said.

So far, nearly 300 of the devices have been discovered in Florida in 2017, they said.

Cox Media Group