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Report: ATM Skimmers Getting Smaller and Harder to Spot

by Fox Van Allen on July 08, 2014

ATM PIN pad

The easiest way to prevent being victimized by ATM fraud
is to obscure your hand while entering your PIN, as shown.

Be careful the next time you use an ATM: Krebs on Security is reporting that thieves have been discovered using increasingly small and difficult-to-spot card skimmers.

Traditional card skimmers are typically placed on top of ATM readers. The new kind is small enough to fit inside the slot, making the fraud harder to spot.

Card skimmers of all types are typically used in conjunction with a tiny spy camera hidden in a pinhole above the machine’s keypad. You can easily foil these cameras by obscuring your PIN input with your spare hand. It’s worth shielding your pin when using any card reader: Skimmers are routinely discovered at gas stations, on point of sale devices and even on postal service kiosks. If an ATM or reader looks suspicious, don’t use it!

For more on the tiny new skimmers, including photos of some of the most commonly discovered devices, check out the Krebs on Security blog.

[Entering PIN at ATM via Shutterstock]


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