Debit Card Scammer Steals $6K From Seniors At Forest Hills ATMs: NYPD

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Several seniors have been robbed of thousands of dollars at two Forest Hills ATMs by a scammer posing as a good Samaritan, according to the NYPD.

The victims were all targeted while trying to withdraw cash from a Forest Hills Citibank ATM — either at 107-01 71st Avenue or 95-12 63rd Road, police said.

In most instances, the man approached the senior and pretended to offer help, before switching the bamboozled victim's debit card with another card, according to the NYPD.

Then, at the Citibank ATM or another machine nearby, the scammer withdrew thousands of dollars — amounting to over $6,000 total — and ran off, police said.

Since January, the debit card scammer has targeted nearly a dozen people in this manner— at first at an ATM in Bushwick and then in Forest Hills — stealing nearly $20,000 total, according to the NYPD. Almost all of his victims have been over the age of 50, police records show.

The thief began targeting people in Forest Hills as of March 2, starting with a 92-year-old woman who he robbed of $2,000 after switching her card with another debit card mid-withdrawal, according to the NYPD.

Later that month, on March 25, he pulled off the same scheme with a 70-year-old man, who he pretended to help before switching the senior's card with a different debit card and then using the victim's card to withdraw $1,000 from a nearby ATM, police said.

The most recent robbery in Forest Hills was May 15, when the scammer switched an 80-year-old man's debit card with another card mid-withdrawal and stole $3,247 from the victim's account, according to the NYPD.

Between January 19 and May 24, the scammer has pulled off this same sort of scheme eight other times with people withdrawing money from a Citibank ATM at 1455 Myrtle Avenue in Bushwick, police records show.

Police, who are still looking for the debit card scammer as of this week, described him as in his mid-40s and included surveillance images of him, too.