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ATM Skimmers

krebsonsecurity.com

31–40 of 76 posts

Re: ATM Skimmers

#31
post #10

I seem to recall that some banks (in Estonia??) will mail you a piece of paper with a list of single-use PIN numbers. Use one, mark through it. When you get close to running out, they mail you a new list.

Some banks do RSA ids, and you have to punch the right number in at the time of withdrawal.

Re: ATM Skimmers

#32

This is an epidemic at gas stations in Southern California. I've been nailed by skimmers in LA, and a lot of my friends have too. My girlfriend refuses to use the debit cart option at Arco gas stations for fear of her card info being stolen again, and its a legit concern. They're impossible to spot unless you plan on trying to pry off the front of every payment kiosk, which as far as I know most banks and gas station…

I had no idea. Any particular cities/areas in particular? (I live in LA.)

Re: ATM Skimmers

#33

A while ago I split my primary bank account into several different accounts with different purposes. One, that gets the bulk of my paycheck for bills/mortgage, gets autodrafted. I never do ATM withdrawals from this account. A certain amount is autodeposited into savings for which I have no ATM card whatsoever. A secondary checking account gets a much smaller slice of my paycheck and is used exclusively for ATM withdr…

Having this setup really helped when my card was skimmed. I received a call from my bank asking if I had anything to do with attempting to purchase some very expensive train tickets in Sweden. They tried to make a large purchase, and when the card was rejected they tried to make a smaller one - but still over the small amount I had in the account.

Re: ATM Skimmers

#34
post #25

I always tug at the card reader on the ATM to make sure it doesn't come loose. What I don't understand is why don't ATMs in Europe use chip and pin yet? All the stores do. That would solve this problem.

> Why don't ATMs in Europe use chip and pin yet? Many of them do - one security feature is to have the ATM pull the card very, very slowly into the slot whilst oscillating them to prevent skimmers reading the mag strip, as it's no longer required (unlike the US, nearly all ATMs here in the UK feed the card in automatically, rather than manually dipping it). If you're not used to this you might think the machine was o…

It's interesting that they use a chip reader internally, but

> you still run into the problem that a) ATM design inherently involves pushing the card into something

Makes that moot. Interesting about the card readers that wiggle the card in, I think I've seen one or two of those. I wonder how hard that is to defeat with a more intelligent skimmer (wheel to measure how fast the card is moving to compensate?).

Re: ATM Skimmers

#35
post #31
post #10

I seem to recall that some banks (in Estonia??) will mail you a piece of paper with a list of single-use PIN numbers. Use one, mark through it. When you get close to running out, they mail you a new list.

Some banks do RSA ids, and you have to punch the right number in at the time of withdrawal.

A search on Google didn't pull much up for me on which banks offer this. Do you know which banks off hand?

Re: ATM Skimmers

#36

A while ago I split my primary bank account into several different accounts with different purposes. One, that gets the bulk of my paycheck for bills/mortgage, gets autodrafted. I never do ATM withdrawals from this account. A certain amount is autodeposited into savings for which I have no ATM card whatsoever. A secondary checking account gets a much smaller slice of my paycheck and is used exclusively for ATM withdr…

Yes, I started doing this as soon as I got a debit card after two of my friends were beat up to surrender their pin numbers. One of my friends was held for 7 hours in a tunnel by a thug while his pal was busy taking as much cash as possible and when the limit was reached he started buying expensive, easy to sell goods. He lost all of his money. I learned my lesson from his very traumatic experience.

Re: ATM Skimmers

#37
post #10

I seem to recall that some banks (in Estonia??) will mail you a piece of paper with a list of single-use PIN numbers. Use one, mark through it. When you get close to running out, they mail you a new list.

This used to be standard practice for internet banking here in Germany, but not for cash withdrawals or debit card use.

I seriously doubt this method is ever used for that, as it would massively increase the risk when your card gets stolen (along with the PIN list you'd have to keep on hand). Additionally, I don't think it would work with international payment/withdrawal networks like Maestro.

Re: ATM Skimmers

#38

I always tug at the card reader on the ATM to make sure it doesn't come loose. What I don't understand is why don't ATMs in Europe use chip and pin yet? All the stores do. That would solve this problem.

> why don't ATMs in Europe use chip and pin yet?

Most if not all of them do. But the cards still have the mag stripe to be compatible with ATMs all over the world that don't - and those are where the cloned cards are then used.

Re: ATM Skimmers

#39

This is an epidemic at gas stations in Southern California. I've been nailed by skimmers in LA, and a lot of my friends have too. My girlfriend refuses to use the debit cart option at Arco gas stations for fear of her card info being stolen again, and its a legit concern. They're impossible to spot unless you plan on trying to pry off the front of every payment kiosk, which as far as I know most banks and gas station…

The only time you should ever use your PIN number is when it's absolutely required to complete a transaction. That means at ATMs, getting cash back at a retail store, or purchasing certain items like money orders or prepaid credit cards. NEVER use your PIN outside of these transactions. It increases your risk significantly.

Re: ATM Skimmers

#40
You should ALWAYS put the hand over the other one while you type the PIN number. At least your PIN typing is not going to be recorded. It's something.
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