Skimmers Stike Again

The Federal authorities in Nevada announced an indictment that accuses 13 California residents of participating in an identity-theft scheme that employed electronic skimmers at ATMs around Las Vegas to illegally capture data from credit and debit cards.

 The unique use of the skimmers in this case was the fact that the skimmers were mounted into exterior door readers at Chase bank branches in the valley. To gain after hour access to the ATM machines the customer has to swipe their card in a door reader.  The indictment charges that the defendant’s  also installed a pinhole camera on the ATM pin pads to capture the account holders’ personal identification number (PIN).

The door skimmers captured account holders’ data, including account numbers, names and card expiration dates. This information, along with the captured PIN’s, allowed the defendants to create and use counterfeit credit cards.

This is the reason that I always use one of the tools God gave me before I stick card in any machine.  I first stick my finger in the opening and move it around.  If the slot moves in any way I will never stick my card in it.