Laura Baziak reports that theft of POS touch screens is increasing in Canada as thieves look for an easy way to get any card data stored on the device:
…. Farahbakhchian said theft of all point-of-sale machines has been a steady problem in B.C. for the past three years.
He said he hasn’t seen a rise in touch-screen thefts specifically, but Paul Needham, vice-president of operations at Vivonet, has.
“We’re seeing more in the last year than we used to see,” Needham said. His company sells point-of-sale systems to thousands of restaurants around B.C. and Alberta.
“Year to date, there’s nine terminals and one pin pad [stolen],” Needham said.
Abbotsford criminals have gone so far as to issue a bounty for stolen touch screens, police spokesman Const. Ian MacDonald said.
“It’s a real niche. It’s an organized crime segment that’s targeting these kind of things,” he said.
Read more on The Province.