TAUNTON (CBS) – An alert bank customer in Taunton may have saved a lot of customers some money and grief. The customer was about to use the ATM when he noticed a plastic piece was loose. The piece was where you insert your card.

The customer touched it and it fell off. It turned out to be a “skimmer”, a device that is used to steal customer information.

This particular skimmer was installed on an ATM at the Eastern Bank on Route 140, but it was detected before any customer data was obtained.

WBZ-TV’s Bill Shields reports

The device captures a user’s card information during a swipe, and a small hidden camera mounted on the ATM captures the entry of PIN numbers.

Officers said the only noticeable difference from the skimmer (shown in the above photo on the left) and the real ATM (shown in the above photo on the right) is that the skimmer juts out where the strip reader is, while the card reader on the real ATM is concave.

Police said this was the first reported use of a skimmer in Taunton.

Stoughton police have also encountered “skimmers”, and Det. Jim O’Connor says everyone should examine an ATM before you use it. “Just touch the area around the card slot,” says Det. O’Connor. “And maybe give it a little tug just to make sure it’s not placed over the real slot.”

When thieves manage to install a skimmer, and retrieve customer information, they can either steal money from the account or even sell the information to identity theft rings.