Invisible ATM Card skimming
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Hey Ho To Mexico!
"Despite more head nods and a round of verbal agreement from the hotel staff that this was a good idea, to my surprise nobody at the hotel bothered to touch the machine for two more days."
The problem is not that there are skimmers, the problem is no one wants to deal with it. It's up to the technical wizards in the background to fix these things.
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That's the kind of device that got us while we were in Morocco and no one responded or did anything about it while we were there either.
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Yet another reason not to use ATM cards. Though for cash transactions while traveling, considering the high fees for cash withdrawls on CC's, I'm not sure what a person is to do.
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@Dashrender said:
Yet another reason not to use ATM cards. Though for cash transactions while traveling, considering the high fees for cash withdrawls on CC's, I'm not sure what a person is to do.
You use your ATM at an actual bank. Preferably a branch of your bank. For us, we bank with Citibank for day to day stuff and while Citibank Japan is a different sister company, there are no fees to use the ATM's there. So that is what we do.
If you read his follow up articles, you will learn that this is mostly a single private ATM provider being affected right now, but only mostly. That said, no bank owned ATM's were currently infected. Likely due to the stricter policy enforcement of how changes happen.
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ATMs inside of banks would be the best option, the ones that are indoors inside a branch.
It was a bank owned ATM where we got skimmed in Morocco, but one at a train station and not in a branch.
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If you are really paranoid, open a new temporary account with someone like bank of america a month before you travel and setup some methods to transfer cash online as needed.
The side benefit there is also that some of these banks offer new customer incentives of like $100 if you open an account for 3 months and such.
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We move money out of our ATM account into an untouchable account so that the maximum that can be skimmed is pretty small.
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@JaredBusch said:
If you are really paranoid, open a new temporary account with someone like bank of america a month before you travel and setup some methods to transfer cash online as needed.
The side benefit there is also that some of these banks offer new customer incentives of like $100 if you open an account for 3 months and such.
That's a good idea. If I was an ATM user I would need to fine an international bank.
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@Dashrender said:
@JaredBusch said:
If you are really paranoid, open a new temporary account with someone like bank of america a month before you travel and setup some methods to transfer cash online as needed.
The side benefit there is also that some of these banks offer new customer incentives of like $100 if you open an account for 3 months and such.
That's a good idea. If I was an ATM user I would need to fine an international bank.
You don't use ATMs?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@JaredBusch said:
If you are really paranoid, open a new temporary account with someone like bank of america a month before you travel and setup some methods to transfer cash online as needed.
The side benefit there is also that some of these banks offer new customer incentives of like $100 if you open an account for 3 months and such.
That's a good idea. If I was an ATM user I would need to fine an international bank.
You don't use ATMs?
Nope, I haven't had an ATM card in 20 years. I don't trust that particular system - it's a me thing. CC's at least offer you a near guarantee of not paying fraudulent charges on your account, debit cards don't offer that protection in many cases, especially when the PIN is used (Though, do I recall correctly that your bank refunded your fraud?)
*Edit - look at the Target issue, how long where your PIN numbers out in the wild before this was realized?
The one thing that was frustrating about Europe to me was the inability to use my CC. Many places demanded cash only. This was a limiting factor as I had little to no way of getting cash once I was there.
Perhaps I'll setup an account as you guys have suggested with just a few hundred in it and the ability to go online and transfer to it - but that also requires me to do something else I don't currently have - an account with online access. All of my accounts are currently setup to specifically deny online access. And over the phone transactions now require a password as well as normal account information to gain access (my bank informed me that someone was trying to call into the bank to gain access to my accounts). Considering the amount of resources it takes to make calls to a bank to do fraud, I was/am worried that someone was personally out to upset my situation.
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@Dashrender said:
Nope, I haven't had an ATM card in 20 years.
But you did before that? That's when they were just getting common.
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@Dashrender said:
The one thing that was frustrating about Europe to me was the inability to use my CC. Many places demanded cash only. This was a limiting factor as I had little to no way of getting cash once I was there.
Yeah, can't imagine living without immediate access to cash on demand.
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@Dashrender said:
Nope, I haven't had an ATM card in 20 years. I don't trust that particular system - it's a me thing. CC's at least offer you a near guarantee of not paying fraudulent charges on your account, debit cards don't offer that protection in many cases, especially when the PIN is used (Though, do I recall correctly that your bank refunded your fraud?)
My bank was able to block it, so it never happened. Someone else had it refunded.
Credit cards are SO easy to skim, they have to refund you because they refuse to check if it is really you.
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@Dashrender said:
*Edit - look at the Target issue, how long where your PIN numbers out in the wild before this was realized?
Minor pet peeve.
PIN - Personal Identification Number.
Saying PIN number is just sounds uneducated. -
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Nope, I haven't had an ATM card in 20 years.
But you did before that? That's when they were just getting common.
I did, for less than 4 years. When I opened a checking account at the old age of 16, they put a debit card on my account. Back then you could only use them at ATMs for cash withdrawls. Not like today where you can use them for day to day purchases - frankly I'm unsure how they work in a non PIN fashion.
I rarely used the ATM card then, opting instead to visit a branch (which was nearly as convenient as an ATM) to get cash when I needed. This was also a mechanism for me to curb my spending.
Once I got a CC, I killed the ATM and never looked back.
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@Dashrender said:
(my bank informed me that someone was trying to call into the bank to gain access to my accounts). Considering the amount of resources it takes to make calls to a bank to do fraud, I was/am worried that someone was personally out to upset my situation.
In my opinion, this statement makes your objections just seem paranoia based objections.
You do not use or do all these things that make your life more difficult. Yet you have been a target of fraud anyway.
So instead of sticking your head in the sand, use the tools that are out there.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Nope, I haven't had an ATM card in 20 years. I don't trust that particular system - it's a me thing. CC's at least offer you a near guarantee of not paying fraudulent charges on your account, debit cards don't offer that protection in many cases, especially when the PIN is used (Though, do I recall correctly that your bank refunded your fraud?)
My bank was able to block it, so it never happened. Someone else had it refunded.
Credit cards are SO easy to skim, they have to refund you because they refuse to check if it is really you.
Chip AND Pin would definitely cut down on the amount of fraud. I believe that Europe fully implemented that, I don't understand why the US skipped the Pin portion of it? How does plugging the card into a reader help? I suppose it keeps someone from just copying the mag strip. I wonder how much fraud will be reduced by the reduced use of the mag strip alone?
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Nope, I haven't had an ATM card in 20 years. I don't trust that particular system - it's a me thing. CC's at least offer you a near guarantee of not paying fraudulent charges on your account, debit cards don't offer that protection in many cases, especially when the PIN is used (Though, do I recall correctly that your bank refunded your fraud?)
My bank was able to block it, so it never happened. Someone else had it refunded.
Credit cards are SO easy to skim, they have to refund you because they refuse to check if it is really you.
Chip AND Pin would definitely cut down on the amount of fraud. I believe that Europe fully implemented that, I don't understand why the US skipped the Pin portion of it? How does plugging the card into a reader help? I suppose it keeps someone from just copying the mag strip. I wonder how much fraud will be reduced by the reduced use of the mag strip alone?
The US skipped the CHIP portion of it. Can't get a chipped card anywhere. I've asked and asked. Some people lie to get you to get their card and then it has no chip. I've been trying since 2007 to get one.
In Europe it is a law to protect consumers, that's why they have it. In the US they have shown that the chip is too expensive and it is cheaper to have the fraud.
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Correct, the chip cannot be easily duplicated. And the PIN plus the cheap means that someone can't take it into a back room and make a purchase physically before returning your card to you. It is standard in Europe that the card never leaves your possession at all.
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@Dashrender said:
I did, for less than 4 years. When I opened a checking account at the old age of 16, they put a debit card on my account. Back then you could only use them at ATMs for cash withdrawls. Not like today where you can use them for day to day purchases - frankly I'm unsure how they work in a non PIN fashion.
Debit cards and ATM cards are not the same thing. An pure ATM card is still cash withdrawl only. A debit card tells the system that it is a credit card in cases where it does not use a pin and uses the standard Visa or MasterCard system to do the transaction.
