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Educate yourself on what credit card skimmers look like.
You might think you’re using an ATM slot or touch pad, but G-d forbid you could be inserting your card or entering your pin in a skimmer, sending your private financial information to criminals.
Thank you
Just use reputable ATMs at major banks and known retailers.
joseph: “reputable ATMs at major banks” have also had skimmers attached to them.
Wouldn’t a skimmer attached to a bank’s ATM prevent the ATM from reading the card, thus alerting the customer that something is amiss?
CBS2 Exclusive: ATM Skimmer Found In Howell Tied To Over 100 Fraudulent Transactions
October 19, 2017 7:22 PM
Monmouth CountyHOWELL, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — Police in New Jersey are warning bank customers to be on the lookout for an ATM skimming scam.
Howell Township Police said two men have made over 100 fraudulent transactions in Monmouth County, and stolen the debit card numbers of just as many.
“These are professionals, not just two guys got together try to scam people. This is an elaborate, complex, international scheme,” Christian Antunez told CBS2’s Meg Baker.
They do it with external skimming devices at locations you might think are the safest — your local bank.
The Howell branch of the Manasquan bank first noticed that someone smeared something on the security camera lens.
“When we started to put everything together we realized that so far here in Howell Township, about thirty to forty-thousand dollars of fraudulent withdrawals,” Antunez said.
The accounts were foreign, mostly Canadian.
Police recovered a skimmer from the branch in Manasquan in early September. Evidence shows it was in place for three days stealing personal information from dozens of customers.
“That’s my bank, so kind of worrying,” Tom Kosch said.
Police suspect the cards and pins recorded in New Jersey will be used out of state or in a different country.
“I always pull my account up every day to check it because I’m paranoid about that kind of stuff anyway,” Kosch said.
It’s suspected that the perpetrators may be from New York.
“They rented a car at a rental agency in Brooklyn,” Antunez said.
And they used a fake Italian license with the name Michelle Toto to do it.
Police are hoping someone recognizes the criminals and advises people to pull on the ATM, if it’s fake it won’t be secured very well.
Authorities believe their lead on the suspects could open up investigations in other New Jersey counties — one case in Middlesex County has already been tied to the scam.
Just avoid using ATM/debit cards as much as possible. With most credit cards it’s very easy and hassle-free to dispute fraudulent charges.
If you must use an ATM, use one inside a bank.
“If you must use an ATM, use one inside a bank.”
That’s what I suggested above, but iac retorted that even those are vulnerable.
joseph and meno: Many ATM’s located inside a bank have had skimmers attached to them. I will try to find the articles tomorrow when I can check my work e-mails.
iac: Did you prosecute any of those cases?
I am a supermarket cashier when working at the start of the day one of the tasks we do is check all the pinpad’s for skimmers.
joseph: me personally, no. I want to look for those e-mails I have discussing ATM’s inside on banks that had skimmers attached.
iac: What kind of crimes is your prosecutorial focus?
joseph: Unfortunately that information is private in that it may identify me.
As to ATM skimmers, Brian Krebs has an archive about these skimming devices. Google “krebs on security all about skimmers”.
Before you use any ATM, try to yank pieces off of it, and then try to pull the machine out of the wall.
After you do that, look all around and say “cheese”, because someone will probably be filming you so they can send it in to YWN.
Ummm.. I just swiped my chipified credit card to buy a bottle of water at a super high traffic kiosk… sat down, and then remembered the risks…
Oh no. I hope no one stole your credit card info and used it to buy 4 million dollars worth of packing peanuts.
It’s definitely more risky to carry around cash.
If your credit card info gets stolen, in almost all cases it is very easy to get your money back. It has happened to me several times, and I have never had any problems.
It’s much more likely that cash will fall out of your pocket or get stolen, in which case it will be gone forever. I rarely use cash for anything.
Also, I’m not totally sure about this, but I think if you have a card with a chip (as you probably do), most skimmers won’t work anyway.
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