KTVU.com
UNION CITY, Calif. — A man uncovered an identity theft scam at a Union City bank as he was trying to use the access door to get to an ATM.
Police said the scam happened at a Union City Citibank, but what's unique in this case is that the card scammer targeted people before they even entered the door.

The ATMs are on the inside of a Citibank on Decoto Road in Union City, but customers needing access to their money after the bank is closed need to slide their ATM card into a machine to open the door.

Last Sunday morning, a man who talked to KTVU and asked not to be identified, noticed something unusual.

"When I pulled the card off, this whole device fell off in my hand," he said.

The man discovered a realistic copy of a card reader attached to the face of the original, except the phony card reader has two blue bars.

He said the thieves were smart to avoid the actual ATMs where people are more aware of their surroundings.

"That is an extremely smart move," he said. "As you said people are not going to be thinking about that; they just think that's a way to unlock the door."

Union City police said this is the first time they've ever seen a skimmer device on an access door.

They said the scam is more common at gas station pumps and victims can end up with a cleaned out bank account.

Police are checking if any account information was collected on the memory cards.

One customer was upset that she learned of the attempted identity theft from KTVU.

"Citibank never told me that there was a scam going on," said Karen Merchant of Union City. "I was never told."

The bank manager told KTVU they were waiting on police to let them know if there was any information on the skimmer before notifying customers.