Thieves Steal New Credit Card Enabled Parking Meters

Thieves Steal New Credit Card Enabled Parking Meters

Municipalities across the USA are switching over from old fashioned coin operated parking meters to new high-tech digital meters that accept coins or credit cards, and the trend has not gone unnoticed by thieves. They recently yanked about 20 of the new meters right out of the sidewalk in Chicago, leaving many people who had used their cards in the meters worried about the security of their credit card information.

A spokesman for the contractor who manages the meters for the city tried to assure everyone that their financial data was safe, saying that the card account information was stored and transmitted securely – and is not retained inside the parking meters.

The police department of Chicago was rather surprised that the thieves would work so hard to steal the meters because each of them weighs about 200 pounds. Not only that but they are tightly bolted into place. While some people who steal meters simply cut off the pole and steal the top portion, these criminals took the entire apparatus. They also probably thought they were getting credit card data that was highly valuable – but it appears that the most they got away with was the last four digits of each credit card number.

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