The cleanest way to run a scam is to be nowhere near the scene of the crime. ATM skimming devices make that possible. As credit card fraud holds its place as the leading cause of identity theft so far this year, we ask our experts just how common ATM skimmers really are, and what you can do to protect your money and data. 

Cheddar Explains

ATM Skimmers: Fear Mongering Or A Real Threat?

if you've watched local news over the past several years, you've probably heard about these. A bank customer shocked at the A. T. M. Your personal financial data could be at risk stealing your name and credit card number. While you don't have a clue, everyone loves a buzzword and it's fair to say skimmer and shimmer are definitely among them. Especially as credit card fraud is the leading type of identity theft so far. In 2022 skimming devices. A Tm skimming devices I found a skimmer but how worried should we actually be about encountering one of these devices? And is the frequency of skimmer and shimmer stories, evidence of a looming threat or the perpetuation of a false narrative that blows the issue out of proportion. A skimmer is a device placed on the exterior of a credit card reader. It reads your card using the magnetic stripe and stores its findings so that the people trying to steal information from, you can retrieve it later. The scammer can use that data to do things like replicate your credit card or make online purchases. And it's a pretty straightforward scam to run. They're very easy to make a malicious actor can get ahold of a legitimate credit card reader disassemble it use the pieces and parts from it to build the skimmer to then place over a legitimate credit card reader. But a skimmer can't steal chip data which is where the shimmer comes in. We started hearing about Shimmers around 2015. A shimmer is as thin as a credit card so it fits right into a chip reader and takes its place between a card and the machine. It generally targets chip data though every device is different. The Shimmer actually requires a much more higher level technical proficiency to manufacture them. A shimmer sometimes called a deep insertion skimmer. The terminology is confusing, is more versatile. It's virtually undetectable and placed inside the machine so it can be used at convenience. And grocery stores. To traditional skimmers tend to be most common on an A. T. M. Machine or at the gas station. Every criminal handles things differently. Some fashion their own devices, others find them on the black market. And the variety in skimming and shaming device means that we can't make blanket statements about the way these scams work. But we can say that skimmers are often detectable when you show up at an A. T. M. Check the card entry slot for any loose parts. I tell my daughter my son, you know before you swipe your card just grab it and shake it. You know, people may look at you like you're crazy but you're protecting you and everybody else standing behind you. The FBI also advises that you pull at the edges of the keypad before putting in your pin number and cover the keypad when you do in case there's a camera and if you can avoid it don't use your pin number at all. I generally don't like using my debit card anywhere. But if for some reason you do have to use your card. I would not run it as a debit transaction but I would run it as a credit transaction That way you're not forced to put in your pin and your pin is not being captured. So how often can you expect to run into a skimmer? We don't know. The data is hard to come by but it's a widespread problem in the US mainly because a lot of 80 M. Still use mag stripe cards in europe. Many countries have phased out the magnetic stripe skimming overall is definitely a problem in the national landscape. Just to give put something in perspective. Here is just in october of this year California experienced $6 million in front last due to skimming. That's a combination of a TM skimming point of sale skimming as well. They're recovering about anywhere from up to 300 skimmers a month in the state of California. That's just an example of what we're currently seeing in just one state. The analytics company. Fico you may have heard the term Fico credit score has reported a 759% increase in U. S. Card skimming fraud. In the first half of 2022 more than half of those incidents happened in California by the way. And the majority of card compromises occurred at a convenience store as opposed to a bank A. T. M. So speaking more generally is the type of fraud rare common or neither I would say it's somewhere between in the past maybe five years personally. I've been skimmed three times and those are most likely coming from the gas stations for the, you know, internal gas pump skimmers and I've had, you know, colleagues, friends that haven't been skinned in a big picture sense. Here's what we know if your local news station is reporting a skimming outbreak in your community, you should be worried in the broader scope. Skimming and Shiming seem to be relatively rare and odds are you wouldn't know if you've been skimmed or shamed anyway. Nevertheless, experts say you'll want to protect yourself closely, monitor your credit and debit card statements actively looking for charges you don't recognize, avoid using your pin and try to tap when possible. And when it comes down to it, the clearest way to protect yourself is to keep an eye on your physical credit or debit card. It's still easiest for someone to steal that from your pocket or purse.