San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s deputies are trying to locate a man who tampered with an ATM machine at the Bank of America branch on Los Osos Valley Road in Los Osos early Thursday morning.

The man is described as an adult male, early 20s, weighing 160 to 180 pounds, with black hair and a scraggly beard. He had a cigarette in his mouth and was wearing a black hoodie, black T-shirt, black baseball hat and large black-framed glasses.

At 1:11 a.m. Thursday, the man attempted to place a skimmer device on the ATM in order to steal passwords and other data that would allow him to raid accounts of persons using the machine. The ATM sensed the tampering and automatically shut down, preventing any identity theft.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, these types of attacks are getting more prevalent as ATM, gas stations and other direct transaction points employ debit and credit card readers. Anyone with information about the suspect is asked to call Deputy Dave Menghrajani at 528-6083 or text SLOTIPS plus your message to 274637.