It's called a "skimmer", and crooks put it on top of legitimate ATMs to capture your card number and PIN. From the outside, it looks like this:
If you look really closely, you'll see a pinhole on the right that has a camera recording you as you enter your PIN.
Brian Krebs has a very interesting post about how this sort of thing happens, and what you can do to protect yourself.
Interesting post. I'll show it to the nice teller at my bank the next time she tries to talk me into getting an ATM card.
ReplyDeleteI hate to admit this, but other than my military service, I've always been self-employed in a cash business of one kind or another. I've never used an ATM in my life. Never will, now.
ReplyDeletei always give the ATM's card reader a good yank before i use it. same thing for gas pumps - give it a yank. if it comes apart, then hey, you've found a skimmer.
ReplyDeleteLaura has it right! :-)
ReplyDeleteHaven't used the atm card in a while, mostly because of how easy it is to empty a bank account due to convenience.
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