Cashpoint scam arrests

A GROUP of foreign men have been arrested after setting up a Lebanese loop scam in Worthing town centre '“ on the same ATM machine targeted before.

Two Romanians and two Italians aged between 17 and 26 were found by police operating the scam from the cashpoint at Boots in Montague Street on Friday.

Police were called to the busy shopping street at around noon by the town's Shopwatch scheme which noticed the men acting suspiciously.

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The device was recovered. The Lebanese loop, which fits into the card slot in a cashpoint machine, reads details from bank cards while the scam operators film people pressing their pin number into the machines.

Details from the cards can then by transferred onto another plastic card and used to withdraw cash.

Sergeant Andy Fleming said: "The only way you can really detect that a Lebanese loop is operating on a cashpoint is that it is harder to put your card into the machine. People need to be extra cautious."

On Friday, September 26, four Romanian men were arrested and charged for using a loop device on the same cashpoint.

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All eight men are from London and have been remanded in custody, apart from a 15-year-old boy who was bailed, on charges of conspiracy to steal. Four men will appear at Lewes Crown Court on October 16 and three men on October 26.

Police are urging anyone who used the ATM before 1pm on Friday, October 3, to contact them as they may have been targeted.

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