Tag Archives: Skimmer

Would you notice this?

There are countless news stories about credit card numbers being stolen by hackers, and people having thousands of dollars of fraudulent charges levied against their accounts. Target is paying out $10 million to compensate for a data breach in their system, however everyone from Sony to multiple financial institutions has been attacked recently.

Unbeknownst to many, there is another way that criminals are able to get hold of credit and debit card info that many of us would never notice – skimmers and keypad overlays.

A skimmer is a device that fits over the card slot on an ATM or gas pump or other device, and when you slide your card into the slot, you slide it into the skimmer as well as the ATM slot itself. You’ll still get your money, but the criminals will get your information and you’ll never know it happened, at least until you get robbed. Keypad overlays are the same, except they sit over the keypad of a machine and when you enter your PIN, it’s recorded on the overlay as well as in the ATM. Again, you’ll still get your money, but you’ll also have unknowingly given your information to some unscrupulous people.