Agents Seek 3 Men in High-Tech Bank Heist : Crime: Computer-age Bonnie and Clydes, the suspects are said to have rolled an automatic teller machine into a mall and victimized its users.

Federal investigators announced Thursday that they are searching for three clean-cut men with banking and computer expertise who are responsible for a high-tech breakthrough in the field of bank robbery.

Composite photos of the three suspects were made public by Secret Service officials, who have been coordinating a massive investigation of what authorities have deemed a brilliantly conceived and executed crime.

These computer-age Bonnie and Clydes rolled their own automatic teller machine into a local shopping mall. The ATM failed to dispense any money to all but a few of the people who tried to use it. However, it collected up to 3,000 bank account and personal identification numbers from unsuspecting customers. The perpetrators then used the purloined data to encode blank cards, and withdraw at least $52,000 from dozens of accounts.

Dan Marchitello, a Secret Service special agent investigating the case, described it as perhaps the most sophisticated high-technology bank robbery in history. “I think it shows what ingenuity will do when high tech comes into play,” he said.

Since their introduction a decade ago, ATMs have been an attractive target for criminals. Some bandits use binoculars to observe the PINs being used by customers, then match them up with the account numbers on discarded transaction slips. Other crooks have been known to stock an ATM with phony deposit slips that direct all the money into their account.

In addition, there are many less sophisticated crimes involving ATMs. Some bank customers have been held up by gunmen as they finished a late-night transaction at a secluded ATM window. And a few muscular crooks with crowbars have even succeeded in making off with entire ATMs full of money.

But Marchitello said the Secret Service, which investigates such crimes, has never encountered any thieves as clever or as resourceful as those who decided to open up their own ATM at the nearby Buckland Hills Mall.

Composite pictures of the thieves were drawn from descriptions supplied by numerous employees of the mall, where the phony automatic teller machine operated undetected for more than two weeks until May 9. Observers said the machine displayed realistic-looking insignia for several well-known automatic banking networks, but had no bank name on it.

Before rolling their ATM machine into the mall on April 24, two of the bandits negotiated a verbal contract with mall owners during several face-to-face meetings. The pair identified themselves as David C. Mills, president of Electronic Cash Machines, a firm allied with Guarantee Bank of New Jersey, and Don Yates, vice president. Mills appeared to be in his late 40s and Yates in his mid-20s.

Together, the two men demonstrated an impressive knowledge of banking, ATM operations, malls and marketing in their conversations with mall owners. If the owners had bothered to check, of course, they would have learned that both the ATM company and the bank named by the men were fictitious.

The third suspect, also in his mid-20s, was identified as the repairman who frequently came to the mall during the two-week period, ostensibly to fix the cashless ATM.

Authorities now believe that the repairman was downloading account information from the machine during these visits.

Since the scam was uncovered, investigators have marveled at how many customers tried to use the ATM, even though it was on wheels and not connected to a wall. The mall has two other permanent ATMs, one of which was apparently jammed by the crooks in order to encourage people to use the phony one.

No one knows where the crooks obtained their ATM. Marchitello observed that many such machines were available on the “open market” after the collapse of many savings and loans, and he speculated that the crooks may have obtained their machine from a failing thrift.

Most of the money withdrawn so far by the crooks was taken through real ATMs in the New York City area, authorities said. One withdrawal was made in Florida, however. The robbers are believed to have used homemade plastic cards.

Under federal regulations, customers are liable for only $50 of money stolen from their accounts if they report the crime immediately. The banks will absorb the rest of the losses.

Although the scheme was extremely clever, authorities believe the bandits may have overlooked one detail: All ATM withdrawals in New York state must be recorded on film. Secret Service officials expect to obtain the pictures from those transactions in the next few days.

In addition, Marchitello said the Secret Service is questioning banking industry officials throughout the Northeast, seeking the names of people with sufficient expertise to commit such a crime.

Because the crime has received so much publicity, authorities are prepared for copy-cat robberies. Marchitello’s advice to ATM users: “Use a machine that you are familiar with.”