How to spot an atm skimmer

What Are Skimmers?
Skimmers are essentially malicious card readers that grab the data off the card’s magnetic stripe attached to the real payment terminals so that they can harvest data from every person that swipes their cards. The thief has to come back to the compromised machine to pick up the file containing all the stolen data, but with that information in hand, he can create cloned cards or just break into bank accounts to steal money. Perhaps the scariest part is that some skimmers don’t prevent the ATM or credit card reader from functioning properly. The typical ATM skimmer is a device smaller than a deck of cards that fits over the existing card reader. Most of the time, the attackers will also place a hidden camera somewhere in the vicinity with a view of the number pad in order to record personal identification numbers or PINs. The camera may be in the card reader, mounted at the top of the ATM, or even just to the side inside a plastic case holding brochures. Some criminals may install a fake PIN pad over the actual keyboard to capture the PIN directly, bypassing the need for a camera.

what’s known as a skimmer, or a device made to be affixed to the mouth of an ATM and secretly swipe credit and debit card information when bank customers slip their cards into the machines to pull out money. Skimmers have been around for years, of course, but thieves are constantly improving them, and the device pictured below is a perfect example of that evolution. This particular skimmer was found on Dec. 6, 2009, attached to the front of a Citibank ATM in Woodland Hills, Calif. Would you have been able to spot this? The U.S. Secret Service estimates that annual losses from ATM fraud totaled about $1 billion in 2008, or about $350,000 each day. Card skimming, where the fraudster affixes a bogus card reader on top of the real reader, accounts for more than 80 percent of ATM fraud. Last week, I had a chance to chat with Rick Doten, chief scientist at Lockheed Martin‘s Center for Cyber Security Innovation. Doten has built an impressive slide deck on ATM fraud attacks, and pictured below are some of the more interesting images he uses in his presentations.

How can you reduce the risk?

1. Familiarize yourself with the look & feel of the ATM fascia on machines
2. Inspect the ATM & all areas of its fascia for unusual or non-standard appearance
3. Is there anything unusual (card reader, area above the screen)?
4. 1. Use secure ATM machines under video surveillance or inside a bank lobby. …
   2. Pay careful attention to what the card reader and keypad normally look like on the ATMs you use most frequently.
   3. Don’t use an ATM if the card reader appears to be added on, fits poorly, or is loose. Report any unusual appearance immediately to the Police or the nearest CBA branch
      Protect Yourself