Alert consumer spots ATM card skimmer

[PhotonWrangler]

You need to read this. An alert consumer sensed that something wasn't quite about the ATM machine he was about to use, so he took a closer look and discovered that it had a card skimmer attached. So he removed it and notified authorities.

The article includes some good closeups of the nefarious device. Make note of this and be alert for them.

**EDIT** Another one spotted, this time inside a Chase Bank in Manhattan. What's mind blowing is that the bank didn't shut it down immediately after being informed of the problem!

 

[ackbar]

thanks for the headsup. I always give the card slot a quick once over before sticking in my debit card.

 

[Big_Ed]

Thanks for posting this. I'll be a lot more careful when using an ATM from now on.
One thing I did to protect myself a little bit from having my card info stolen was to have a $100 withdrawal limit per day. At least if a crook was going to steal my money from an ATM, they'd only get $100 per day. Still a lot of money, but better than all of my money at once.

 

[DonShock]

I tend to use my local gas station ATM most times. I'm always on the lookout for shoulder surfers, etc. But one thing they do, and it's there every week when I go, is that they have a convenient container to dispose of unwanted receipts. And where do they put the container? Right in front of the ATM camera! I move it out of the way every week before I use the ATM, but it's right back in the same place the following week.

 

[Monocrom]

Thanks for posting this.

From now on, I'm going to try to yank out the card slot of every ATM I use. If it's legit; no harm, no foul. If not, I'll know it right away.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Turns out there's even more to this saga. Now the thieves have even cooked up a skimmer coupled to a GSM phone, so the stolen information is sent to them in real time wirelessly so there's no need to revisit the scene to dump the data. Check out Network World's Rogue Gallery of Skimmers.

 

[Black Rose]

I think all banks should be required to do what my bank did with all of it's ATMs.

They installed a blocker over the card slot so that skimmers could not be attached to the ATM machines.

I've been hit once, but the bank felt that it was a debit machine pin pad that got me.

I was sitting at home paying bills online at the same time "they" were 600 miles away depositing an empty envelope into an ATM and then withdrew $1000.