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Attacks on European ATMs were 69% in the first half of this year, compared to last year. On the bright side, card skimming is on the wane.
October 18
A former head teller at West-Aircomm Federal Credit Union pleaded guilty to embezzling $400,000 by taking cash from three ATMs.
Shirley Howl, 56, was the lead teller for the Moon, Penn., credit union and in charge of three ATMs. She adjusted the log entries showing how much cash was in the machines, tore out portions of the paper tapes that recorded transactions and told other employees to throw away backup tapes, according to prosecutors.
Howl, who pleaded guilty on Oct. 18, will be sentenced at a later date on one count of making a false entry in financial institution records. That entry, in which she overstated the amount of money in a cash-dispensing machine by $130,000, was part of her lengthy and complicated cover-up of her removal of money from the credit union’s coffers, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Howl also shifted funds to cover her tracks before annual cash counts. But in late 2009, she was out of the office at the time of a cash count. Then employees found that the three cash machines were short a total of $400,000.
