GARDAÍ ARE WARNING those who use DART and train ticket vending machines “to be vigilant and cover your credit card pin numbers”.

It comes after a number of individuals were targeted by criminals who are skimming credit cards and taking details and PINs of unsuspecting cardholders at Irish rail stations in recent weeks.

There have been at least three known cases in the last week including an incident at Booterstown DART station and one at Dun Laoghaire train station, both in Dublin.

A garda spokesperson told TheJournal.ie they are investigating some of the recovered skimming devices:

There are ongoing investigations into skimming devices being placed at ticket machines on railway networks. Some devices have been recovered as part of this operation and are currently being technically examined.

Criminals

An Irish rail staff member observed the criminals in action, a spokesperson for Iarnród Éireann told TheJournal.ie:

We alerted Gardaí to this issue after a staff member observed a group behaving suspiciously at Booterstown Station. We have briefed station staff on what to look out for, to check ticket vending machines regularly, and on actions to take if they find skimming equipment on ticket vending machines.

The Iarnród Éireann spokesperson also added that they don’t expect this kind of activity to escalate in the run up to Christmas, when a larger number of people than usual will use Irish rail services.

Fraud

Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO) has been working with the machine operators and the card issuers, to ensure that any accounts attached to payment cards that may have been compromised in this way, are monitored for potential fraud spend.

IPSO has this advice for cardholders:

Anyone who believes they may have been compromised should check their accounts on a regular basis. Bank statements are available 24 hours a day on the internet or over the phone and any unauthorised cash withdrawals or sales should be reported immediately to the card issuing bank and Gardaí.

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