Tag: skimmer

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Throughout the history of technology, as technology evolves with every iteration so do we…well, at least we try to. From shaping wheels out of stone to aid in our transporting heavy items, creating boats to sail across seas, and creating the internet to provide the world with endless reels of cat videos.

Our progress has been quite amazing, another thing that is quite amazing is how quickly we look to not only exploit the vulnerabilities in our creations but in each other through nefarious means.

When a good invention involves a secure transaction between a business owner and the customer, the risk of a man in the middle, a bad actor, or a member of the “Wet Bandits” is sure to frequently come into play. Let me script to you what I mean.

Fueling Your Identity Crisis

So, what is this nefarious act? Brace yourself, you’re going to be amazed at how clever this name is. The act is called “credit card skimming”.

Credit card skimming or what is often referred to as “card skimming or skimming”, is the act of illegally using a device mounted onto a point-of-sale (POS) to capture a victim’s credit card information for identity theft.

This form of cyberattack isn’t anything new and has been in the news many times before but as prices for simply living have gone up and the pay for the common man and common woman has either gone down or remained the same, incidents have gone on the rise.

This is one of two variations, the other is e-commerce skimming or also known as digital skimming which is the act of intercepting credit card information from the form field of a website. And before you fix to say anything, yes, I know. While you are reading this, there is a lot of skimming going on.   

Over-priced Fueling

You might have the thought, “this only happens at certain places, I should be good where I’m at.” Well, I have some not so good news for you. This form of cyberattack can happen anywhere that requires you to swipe your card. For example, if you were to make the unfortunate mistake of today called “needing gas”.

Let’s say you pull up to a fuel pump, swipe your card in the faintly loose card reader and receive your “This gasoline makes your car ride on water, that’s why you’re paying this god-awful inconsistent price” and drive off into the sunset with depressing thoughts of you working into your golden years and beyond.

You may have failed to pay attention to the small detail in which the card reader was a little loose. This in turn led to your information being collected from the magnetic strip of your credit card for later use at the thief’s discretion.

But this doesn’t only happen at fuel stations, the art of getting skimmed can happen in restaurants, ATMs, retail stores, and pretty much anywhere that has a point-of-sale service or terminal.

In a nutshell, if you have to swipe card double check your account to ensure everything is right. Just when you thought you were getting screwed over enough when getting gas.  

Small Detour:

A guy discovered a card skimmer in an ATM during his interaction, click here to check it out.

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More than Your Bank Account

So you might be asking yourself, why would someone want to pretend to be me? You might also have the train of thought if they steal my information, they’re just practicing because I don’t have anything for them to steal.

Well, I can tell you why someone would want to be you because you’re special and you’re a somebody. Yup, that’s right. You’re a somebody with a pulse, a car, and a credit card. Which means you have the means to get a lot of nice things, things you didn’t even know you wanted until they show up on your credit card statement.

This act is committed with the intent of creating fake cards in your name to either purchase desired items that could range from gift cards, cars, multiple loans, or simply some play time at Top Golf.

Aside from taking money right out of your account and mucking up your finances, another and more terrifying purpose of collecting your information is to sell it on the dark web.

Whatever the use case may be, your information is a currency far better than money. And you thought they were just practicing because you’re living from paycheck to paycheck. Silly you, you are the paycheck.

Facing the Zeros

You may be wondering what are some of the ways you can protect yourself from having your information copied and pasted into oblivion. Since most of these attacks happen at fuel pumps, making use of the pump nearest facing the store clerk could provide some security because it is less likely they were tampered with.

If you don’t have access to the pump nearest the clerk, check the card reader for any slack as it may offer some sign of being compromised, and try to cover up the keypad as much as possible when entering your PIN (Personal Identification Number) this will prevent and micro-camera from knowing what you entered. Another and if all else fails in providing comfortability, going in and completing your transaction with the store clerk could be advised as this is a face-to-face interaction.

Other places might not be so obvious since technology is advancing but by being vigilant and tracking your spending, you can catch any alarming activity. Double checking with people like a spouse who may have access to your accounts to confirm if they were the ones to make purchases.

Making use of email alerts from your financial institution and multi-factor authentication (MFA) or two-multi-factor authentication (2FA) combined with any biometric verification could help bolster the security of your account. Sometimes what seems alarming could very well be a false-positive…which in this case could be a very good thing.

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