Beat the card skimmers at their own game

Criminals can capture your credit and debit card info with small devices called skimmers. If you’re careful, you can keep from being duped
in.pcmag.com

Advanced devices to steal your information are installed by criminals directly on to ATMs and credit card readers. These are called skimmers. If you’re careful, you can keep from falling prey to these devices.

What are skimmers?

Skimmers are malicious card readers attached to the real payment terminals so that they can harvest data from every person who swipes his card. The thief has to come back to the compromised machine to pick up the file containing all the stolen data. With that information, he can create cloned cards or break into bank accounts to steal money. Skimmers often don’t prevent the ATM or credit card reader from functioning properly, making them hard to detect. The threats are real and evolving, which is why it’s important to give ATMs or credit card readers a quick check before use.

Check for tampering

When you approach an ATM, check for some obvious signs of tampering. Quickly take a look at the ATM next to yours and compare them. If there are any obvious differences, don’t use either one. For example, if one ATM has a flashing card entry to show where you should insert the ATM card and the other ATM has a plain reader slot, you know something is wrong. Most skimmers are glued on top of the existing reader and will obscure the flashing indicator. If the keyboard doesn’t feel right — too thick or spongy — then there may be a PIN-snatching overlay, so don’t use it.

Wiggle everything

Even if you can’t see any visual differences, push at everything. ATMs are solidly constructed and generally don’t have any loose parts. See if the keyboard is securely attached and just one piece.

Think through your steps

Whenever you enter your card’s PIN, assume there is someone looking. Maybe it’s over your shoulder or through a hidden camera. Cover the keypad with your hand when you enter your PIN. That’s good policy even if you don’t notice anything odd about the ATM. Of course, that assumes the attacker is using a camera and not an overlay to obtain your PIN. Criminals frequently install skimmers on ATMs that aren’t located in busy locations since they don’t want to be observed installing malicious hardware or collecting the harvested data.

Stay aware

If you don’t notice a card skimmer and your card data does get stolen, take heart. As long as you report the theft to your card issuer or bank as soon as possible, you will not be held liable for the lost amount and your money will be returned.

Also, try to use a credit card whenever possible. Credit card transactions can be stopped and reversed at any time and doing so puts pressure on merchants to better secure their ATMs and pointof-sale terminals.