Criminals target ATMs to steal your identity and credit cards

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March 12th, 2009 - Posted by Robert Siciliano

Robert Siciliano is a NextAdvisor.com Expert Guest Blogger

Skimming is a form of identity theft that is one of the financial industry's fastest-growing crimes, according to the U.S. Secret Service. The worldwide ATM Industry Association reports over $1 billion in annual global losses from credit card fraud and electronic crime associated with ATMs.

Skimming is a relatively low tech crime. It can occur in a few different ways. The most common is when a store clerk takes a device called a wedge card skimmer, runs your card through and skims the information off the magnetic strip.

Once the thief has your credit or debit card data they can place orders over the phone or online.

They can also rip the data from the wedge and burn it to blank "white" cards. These white cards are effective at self checkouts or when the thief knows the clerk and is able to "sweetheart" the transaction. These white cards can also be pressed with foils to look like a legitimate credit card.

Then there is a more sophisticated skimming technique. Thieves actually place a hard device on the face of an ATM that looks like the ATM. It's almost impossible for a civilian to notice the difference unless they have an eye for security, or the skimmer is of poor quality.

Often, the thieves will mount a small pinhole camera on the side of the ATM, such as in a brochure holder, to record the victim's pin number.

It's not only ATMs that are potential marks; gas pumps are equally vulnerable. Click here to see a video of me discussing this in more depth, or here to read another article on this topic.

It is very difficult to protect yourself from this form of credit card fraud. Most victims only find out if they are paying close attention to their monthly statements. Generally, you will be in good shape as long as you refute unauthorized charges within 60 days.

New account fraud is a different story. This is when identity theft protection services, do it yourself fraud alerts or credit freezes are necessary. To learn more about identity theft protection services, check out NextAdvisor.com's reviews and comparison chart.

ADT, the major home alarm company, unveiled an anti-skim tool, the first of its kind, that will protect consumers. I haven't seen it yet, but it sounds promising. The ADT Anti-Skim™ ATM Security Solution helps prevent skimming attempts and detects skimming devices on all major ATM makes and models. It is installed inside an ATM near the card reader, making it invisible from the outside. The solution detects the presence of foreign devices placed over or near an ATM card entry slot without disrupting the customer transaction or operation of most ATMs. The technology also helps prevent card-skimming attempts by interrupting the operation of an illegal card reader.

The ADT Anti-Skim ATM Security Solution:
• Helps protect the integrity of cardholders' personal financial information during ATM transactions.
• Can trigger a silent alarm for command center response and coordinate video surveillance of all skimming activities.
• Requires no software adjustments to the ATM.
• Does not connect to or affect the ATM communications network.
• Has more than 40,000 successful ATM applications worldwide.

Prior to its North American introduction, the ADT Anti-Skim ATM Security Solution was successfully field tested on dozens of ATMs of four major U.S. financial institutions in controlled pilot programs. Testing pilots yielded positive results, with no known skimming compromises occurring.

Again, I haven't seen it. But would like a first hand demonstration. ADT, have your peeps call my peeps.

Go here to see identity theft expert Robert Siciliano discussing ATM skimming.

Robert Siciliano is CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com , an identity theft expert, professional speaker, security analyst, published author and television news correspondent. Siciliano works with Fortune 1000 companies and startups as an advisor on product launches, branding, messaging, representation, SEO and media. Siciliano's thoughts and advice on all these matters appear often in both the televised and print news media including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, Forbes and USA Today. He has 25 years of security training as a member of the American Society of Industrial Security. He is the author of 2 books including The Safety Minute : Living on High Alert; How to take control of your personal security and prevent fraud.