Thursday, October 1, 2026
An unknown number of Long Beach bank customers may be victims of a fake electronic skimmer and mini-camera planted at a bank to steal their debit or credit card information.
A Long Beach customer called police after discovering the skimmer at Chase Bank, at East Park Avenue, around 7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22.
“An alert citizen recognized it for what it was and notified the Long Beach Police Department,” said Lt. Bruce Meyer, an LBPD spokesman, who noted that detectives are still investigating the number of potentially invaded accounts.
The skimmer, which had fake screws on its front but was instead stuck over the actual skimmer with an adhesive on the bank’s front door, retains the personal data from the magnetic strip on customers’ cards. And a pinhead-sized camera was found installed near the ATM keyboard to capture pin numbers. The suspect then takes the card information and pin numbers and makes duplicate cards to use at ATMs to withdraw money from accounts, Meyer explained.
“The skimmer is a relatively cheap device, and if you wiggle it a little it will pop right off, it doesn’t take much,” he said. “It appears as if it’s screwed in but it’s not.”
Police believe the suspect probably planted the skimmer and camera on Saturday when bank officials aren’t present to notice the device.
“Apparently, this happens a lot,” Meyer said about the skimmer scam. “It’s bad enough they probably would be able to wipe out your account if it went undetected, but then you have to worry about calling the credit card companies, canceling accounts.”
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