Card skimmers have been around for a while now, but they’re only getting more sophisticated and hard to detect. This one features a tiny pinhole camera that records victims’ PIN as they punch it into the keypad, and it was clearly moulded to fit and work with this exact ATM.
What can you do to protect yourself? Just be aware. Look at all the ATMs in the bank you’re in to make sure they all look the same. Look for hidden cameras or extra seams that seem out of place. Look for odd protrusions or elements that have colours that don’t match the rest of the machine. If you’re paying attention, you should be OK. But if you aren’t, you’re at risk for giving up your checking account to a scammer. [Krebs on Security via Cynical C]
adelaide dancing
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 10:38 AMthis kind of thing really scares the hell out of me!
Andrew Mills
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 11:11 AMVery worrying indeed. Only save to get cash out when your buying your groceries?
ranger
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 1:06 PMBut even EFTPOS machines in supermarkets etc. are being targeted for skimming hardware. In some cases the entire units are being replaced with replica EFTPOS machines, complete with card reading, pin capturing, data transmitting goodness!
Brian
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 3:07 PMNot really.
You obviously didn’t get the coverage of the EFTPOS scam that occurred in Perth towards the end of last year where nearly $4,000,000 was stolen from peoples bank accounts after EFTPOS machines at the golden arches were tampered with. The culprits posed as technicians and planted devices inside the EFTPOS machines that transmitted your card and pin details to someone nearby. So there was absolutely no way to tell.
The only real way to be completely safe is to get money out over the counter in your bank branch. But then the bank just steals your money for the privilege.
Chris Schirlinger
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 12:11 PM> If you’re paying attention, you should be OK
Yeah right
I’ve seen those internal documents (leaked a while back) the banks handed out to staff to help them catch these scanners
They had dozens of photos of machines with comments like “And of course, as you can see this photo of the class 3 widget money dispensing machine, the slots are obviously out of place”
Except they weren’t… the damn thing looked fine to me, almost all the compromised ones did. Unless it was a REALLY bad job, it wasn’t obvious
Alan
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 12:22 PMFuturama had an answer to this in an episode, something like eye scan, fingerprint, butt scan…something physical could solve the problem but it is trusting more of your sensitive data to banks
Jeff
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 4:52 PMcover your pin with other hand or wallet. pretty easy step. also make your pin longer than 4 digits!
Funny, i worked for a eftpos company, and we would always talk how easy it would be to do this. I would of been a Billionaire by now!
Steev
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 10:09 PMI got skimmed this week. It must have been from an eftpos machine in a store somewhere because they got my mastercard as well and I never use it in ATM’s because I cant draw cash. Bloody arseholes.