Card skimmers can be hidden at gas pumps and ATM's.
They can be hidden anywhere on or in a gas pump’s credit card slot or the corner bank’s ATM.
Then with one swipe, an illegal bank card skimmer records data off a debit or credit card and can get the PIN code, too. Seconds later, someone has electronic access to the victim’s account.
Customers can’t see the devices, said Paul Elliott, special agent in charge of the Jacksonville Secret Service field office. Most don’t learn they have been skimmed until the monthly bill arrives.
“We found more than 10,000 numbers on a suspect’s computers that he had recovered from various skimmer devices he had,” Elliott said of a recent arrest. “The dollar loss with one bank was $110,000, off just one financial institution, and there are more.”
Titika Hill got skimmed in October after she swiped her card at a convenience store in St. Augustine.
“Within 24 hours my card had been used at a Walmart in Lakeland for $300. However, my card was still in my possession,” she said. “My bank did credit my account back after I submitted a police report. I was advised by my bank to not swipe my card at the pump and to go inside to pay for gas.”
A higher-tech way is to stick a fake card reader atop the real slot on the ATM. Looking like the real thing, it scans the victim’s card, some using a tiny camera to record the PIN. That data can be put onto a blank card, then the PIN is used to “clean out an account,” Elliott said. This can be thwarted if customers take a careful look.
“Look at the device, grab the card reader and give it a tug,” Elliott said, since a fake card reader will pull off.
Link:
http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2010-12-26/story/card-skimmers-gas-pumps-atms-can-capture-your-cash