Durban shop owners urged to be cautious as speed point machine theft increases
A garage on Sydney Road has been hit twice.
UMBILO police are urging shop owners and staff to be vigilant of their card machines following a spate of theft recently.
Captain Pumzile Makaula, Umbilo SAPS spokesperson, said criminals have been targeting cordless speed point machines.
“All businesses, especially service stations, please take note of this. Yesterday, we visited some service stations. The manager of a garage on Sydney Road confirmed that they have already been hit twice,” she said.
“The first time, the suspect grabbed the speed point and ran away with it. The second time, the speed point was swapped. The manager said they were swiping and realised that the machine was no longer working.”
Makaula said the store owner only found out that his machines were swapped when he took it to the bank and was told that the speed point did not belong to his business, but to a business in Johannesburg.
Makaula said it is still not clear what the apparent benefit to criminals would be to steal speed points.
ALSO READ: Trend in card machine thefts continue to baffle authorities
Berea Mail reported on this issue last year which baffled technological crime experts.
“SABRIC (South African Banking Risk Information Centre) is aware of the prevalence of this phenomenon where POS devices are being stolen by criminals at retail outlets in KwaZulu-Natal. The banking industry is working closely with the SAPS to investigate these incidents. Because these investigations are still underway, SABRIC is unable to confirm the modus operandi at this time,” said Nischal Mewalall, Chief Executive Officer of SABRIC at the time.
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