Credit Card Skimming
 

We live in a time where your identity and everything about you can be taken advantage of easily if you arent educated. It is time to educate yourself. In this article i will attempt to cover 3 of the most dangerous and interesting scams i know of.

"Skimming occurs when an unscrupulous employee at a legitimate merchant takes a second copy of the card details on the magnetic strip before processing the payment through the official EPOS terminal. This copy of card details is sold on the black market to fraudsters who clone the cards." - (wikipedia)

#1: ATM Skimming
There are a few different methods a criminal might use to pull off a succesful skim attack. The first and most risky in my opinion is the fake front. A criminal will creat a fake front panel for an ATM complete with a credit card reader, and fake buttons. In order to obtain the information needed the panel might include keyloggers for the keypad, cameras, and scanning devices used to obtain the 3 digit security code from the back of your credit or debit card. For the most part if the panel looks and acts in a manner fitting the ATM machine the scammer who placed it could easily get 100's of thousands of dollers in no time at all. The equipment will run you anywhere from 5-10,000$. This isnt such a big deal when you consider the profits earned from this type of scam.

The images below depict some average components used in the fake panel. "The image on the left is an ATM skimmer device, which was attached to a Bank of America ATM in Boca Raton, Florida.. The touch screen on the left and skimmer on right. this would be covered with a panel like the fake pictured on the right

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/6073/83182484.jpg

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/8400/50981071.jpg

ATM skimming devices are much easier to detect if the scammer hasnt taken the time to allow the number pad, touchscreen, and credit card skimmer interact with the banks. An intelligent skimming device will fullfill the interaction and the user will walk away with there cash as normal(and the bank will be none the wiser till its too late). where as a device that doesnt interact with the original ATM panel it will just store the Debit info. these panels are much easier to find and in most cases the crooks didnt take the time to make a good panel as well. here are a few examples of some bad fakes.

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1001/96007414.jpg

#2: Handheld Skimming

This method may be a little easier for some criminals out there. This method is best accomplished when the criminal is placed into a setting where they receive credit cards on a regular basis. An odvious example would be a place like a resteraunt where the waiter actuall takes the credit/debit card and leaves your presence where they could easily go and run your card through a little skimmer they have hidden. the skimmer would then copy the cc# and expiration date. the waiter would need to write down the 3 digit security code on the back but i cant imagine that being hard.

Pictured below is an average skimming device, which could easily be concealed.