With ATM skimming on the rise consumers need to be cautious when using ATM machines. Identity thieves attach small skimming devices to the machines that copy a credit and debit card numbers, information on the magnetic strip and even personal identification numbers.
“Many consumers may not be aware that an ATM has been tampered with because they’re not educated about this,” said Robert Vamosi, a security, risk and fraud research analyst at Javelin Strategy & Research.
Sophisticated skimming devices placed right over a card reader slot allow scammers to capture the information embedded on the magnetic strip of your debit or credit card. The small devices often are very hard to see and go unnoticed for long periods of time.
Identity thieves also use tiny pinhole cameras that they mount in or around machines that record your fingers typing in your PIN. Or there could be an overlay on the keypad that does so.
Within seconds, they have all they need to duplicate your card.
“They’re not just stealing your credit-card number and information like the expiration date, but also the information encoded on the back of the magnetic strip,” said Brian Krebs, who has written extensively about ATM skimmers on his blog, KrebsOnSecurity.com. “All they need to do is encode the information on another magnetic strip and they’ve recreated your card. …It’s a wholesale re-creation of your card and you still have it in your wallet.”
Theft from ATM skimming is approaching $1 billion annually, according to Bankrate.com. Javelin estimates that one in five people have been hit by an ATM skimmer.
While a traditional bank heist will net the thief an average of $5,000, ATM pinching yields an average of $50,000, according to Doug Johnson, vice president of risk-management policy for the American Bankers Association.
“We have seen a higher level of sophistication associated with devices,” Johnson said, “which can tend to make losses larger than in the past when more easily detectable skimming devices were used.”
The attacks tend to be in high-traffic areas, such as big cities or popular malls. But stand-alone machines anywhere also are targets.
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