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ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pennsylvania (WGAL) — A scammer in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, posing as a deputy, convinced a woman to deposit $2,000 into an ATM inside the county courthouse by exploiting cardless ATM technology.
“We’ve never had a victim come in and say they deposited money into an ATM, so our detectives are working right now, like I said, with PNC Bank to try to figure out how this particular scam is able to be pulled off,” Mike Manko, a spokesperson for the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office, said.
Scammers typically request payments through gift cards or cryptocurrency, but in this case, the scammer directed the victim to use a cardless ATM, which allows access to bank accounts via a smartphone’s digital wallet or banking app instead of a physical card. The ATM used in the scam is located just outside the treasurer’s office in the courthouse.
The scammer told the woman she had missed a jury duty date and faced misdemeanor charges for failing to appear. They claimed the charges could be resolved if she deposited $2,000, which she would supposedly get back after speaking to a judge.
The victim was provided with two codes: an eight-digit code generated through the PNC app for cardless ATM access and a four-digit code the scammer falsely claimed was linked to a criminal case. After entering the codes, the woman deposited $2,000 in cash into the ATM.
“There was nothing wrong with this ATM, there wasn’t like a skimming machine on top of it. It was just an ATM that happened to be close to where the sheriff’s office was, which they used for credibility purposes,” Maria Montano with the Public Affairs of the Allegheny County Treasurer’s Office, said.
Authorities reiterated that law enforcement, including sheriff’s offices, will never request payments over the phone. If someone misses jury duty, they will be contacted directly by the courts.
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