Hackers Break Into 7-Eleven Machines, Make Off With $2 Million

NEW YORK (CBS) ? Police have uncovered a massive identity theft scam in New York City. Thieves have been stealing pin numbers and have gotten away with millions of dollars in cash. The theft came from a very convenient place – a popular convenient store.

They’re cash machines of convenience — Citibank ATM’s located inside 7-Eleven convenience stores. Anna Theofilopoulou says she uses them all the time.

“It’s very convenient because it’s next door to my gym and I just come by whenever I need cash,” Theofilopoulou said.

Federal investigators say from October 2007 to March of this year three identity thieves were able to get cash from those ATMs conveniently without even touching the machines.

Wired.com broke the story and says they believe the hackers accessed bank pin numbers and $2 million through the Internet.

“It looks like what happened was hackers got into a server that processes ATM transactions from Citibank-branded ATMs at 7-Eleven convenience stores, so they were right there,” said Kevin Poulsen of Wired Magazine. “They were right there in the pipeline, a central point where all these transactions pass through and they were able to tap the ATM pin codes as they went by.”

There are 5,700 Citibank-branded ATMs inside 7-Eleven Inc., across the United States. But the bank doesn’t run or operate any of them.

Citibank says its main system wasn’t compromised but: “We did not hold any customers impacted by this situation responsible for fraudulent activity in their accounts. By March we had notified and reissued cards to all customers whom we believed may have been exposed to increased risk.”

Theofilopoulou, for one, says her confidence in the system is a bit shaken.

“I’m going to be more careful. But I’m going to think twice about using the ATMs, although we don’t have much alternative,” she said. “Who has time to go to the bank these days?”

Source: CBS2Chicago