Los Angeles Times
Friday May 14, 1993

         Agents Seek 3 Men in High-Tech Bank Heist
         Original by Sara Fritz
         ASCII Text by KG/Control Team

Hartford , Conn. --Federal Investigators announced Thursday that they are
searchin for three clean-cut men with banking and computer expertise who
are responsible for a high-tech breakthrough in the feild of bank robbery.

Composite photos were made public by Secret Service officials, who have
been coorfinating a massive investigation of what authorities have deemed a
brilliantly conceived and executed crime.

These computer-age Bonnie and Clydes rolled their own automatic teller
machine into a local shopping mall.  The ATM failed to dispense any money
to all but a few of the people who tried to use it.  However it collected
up to 3,000 bank account and personal identification numbers from
unsuspecting customers.  The perpetrators then used the purloined data to
encode blank cards, and withdraw at least $52,000 from dozens of accounts.

Dan Marchitello, a secret service special agent investigating the case,
described it as perhaps the most sophisticated high-technology bank robbery
in history.  "I think it shows what ingenuity will do when high tech comes
into play," he said.

Since their introduction a decade ago, ATM's have been an attractive target
for criminals.  Some bandits use binoculars to observe the PIN's being used
by customers, then match them up with the account numbers on discarded
transaction slips.  Other crooks have been know to stock an ATM with phony
deposit slips that direct all the money into their account.  In addition,
there are many less sophisticated crimes involving ATM's.  SOme bank
customers have been held up by gunmen as they finished a late-night
transaction at a secluded ATM window.  And a few muscular crooks with
crowbars have even succeded in making off with entire ATMs full of money.

But Marchitello said the Secret Service, which investigates such crimes has
never encountered any theives as clever or as resourceful as those who
decided to open up their own ATM at the nearby Buckland Hills Mall.

Composite pictures of the thieves were drawn from descriptions supplied by
numerous employees of the mall, where the phony automatic teller machine
operated undetected for more than two weeks until May 9.  Observers said
the machine displayed realistic=looking insignia for several well-known
automatic banking networks.  but had no bank name on it.

Before rolling their ATM machine into the mall on April 24, two of the
bandits negotiated a verbal contract with the mall owners during several
face-to-face meetings.  The pair identified themselves as David C. Mills,
president of Electronic Cash Machines, a firm allied with Guarantee Bank of
New Jersey, and Don Yates, vice president.  Mills appeared to be in his
late 40's and Yates in his mid-20s.


Together, the two men demonstrated an impressive knowledge of banking, ATM
operations, mall and marketing in their conversations with mall owners.  If
the owners had bothered to check, of course, they would have learned that
both the ATM company and the bank named by the men were fictitious.

The third suspect, also in his mid-20s, was identified as the repairman who
frequently came to the mall during the two-week period, ostensibly to fix
the cashless ATM.

Authorities now belive that the repairman was downloading account
information from the machine during these visits.

Since the scam was uncovered, investigators have marveled at how many
customers tried to use the ATM, even though it was on wheels and not
connected to a wall.  The mall has two other permanent ATMs, one of which
was apparently jammed by the crooks in order to encourage people to use the
phony one.

No one knows where the crooks obtained their ATM.  Marchitello observed
that many such machines were abailable on the "open market" after the
collapse of many savings and loans, and he speculated that the crooks may
have obtained their machine from a failing thrift.

Most of the money withdrawn so far by the crooks was taken through REAL
ATM's in the New York City area, authorities said.  Onw withdrawl was made
in Florida, however.  The robbers are belived to have used homemade plastic
cards.

Under federal regulations, customers are liable for only $50 of money
stolen from their accounts if they report the crime immediately.  The banks
will absorb the rest of the losses.

Although the scheme was extremely clever, authorities belive the bandits
may have overlooked one detail: All ATM withdrawls in New York state must
be recorded on film.  Secret Service officials expect to obtain the
pictures from those transactions in the next few days. 

In addition, Marchitello said the Secret Service is questioning industry
officials throuout the northeast, seeking the names of people with
sufficient expertise to commit such a crime.

Because the crime has received so much publicity, authorities are prepared
for copy-cat robberies.  Marchitello's advice to ATM users: "Use a machine
that you are familiar with."