ATM Users Beware Of Credit Card Skimmers

Many areas in Washington are reporting cases of credit card fraud which are hard to resolve. The most recent case, according to the police, is from the area of Rockville. An ATM at a bank in Wachovia was detected with a credit card skimming device that could capture all the encrypted data on the card.

This skimming device consists of a camera and card scanner that work in tandem to capture the details of the credit card. This device is placed atop the slot reader that reads the credit card information. It captures all the details when the card is being swiped on the reader. At the same time, an extremely small camera captures the PIN (personal identification) number.

The moment all this information reaches the identity thieves, it will be abused. Brandon Mengedoht, a fraud and check's division detective with the Montgomery County police department, said that the account information and the personal identification number are embedded on to a clone card and misused.

Describing the credit card skimmer that was found at Wachovia, Mengedoth mentioned that it was not very technologically advanced and looked like it was made at home. A spy camera and magnetic card reader were embedded in the skimmer.

A customer, using this ATM on the 3rd of April, 2010, found the skimmer at this ATM that is located at Congressional Plaza.

Terence N Treschuk, Chief of Rockville Police said that, when the customer noticed something out of place, he tried to yank it. However, he later called the police to investigate.

The fraud and checks division of the police is now in charge of this case. Treschuk went on to mention that, though his team does not handle cases related to credit card skimming, he knows that it has been doing rounds for ages now.

Mengedoht said that while people are still not aware about credit card skimming and device being used, it is not difficult to detect the skimmers.

Mengedoth said "The skimming attachment protrudes from the card slot". "If you go up to where the slot is, you can tell something is off. You can certainly feel around before you put your card in."

Mengedoht mentioned that a double sided tape is used to hold this device in place. Hence, it can be easily yanked out if detected.

He warned all customers of the every bank to be careful when using their credit cards at the ATMs. He said that rather than waiting for the police to arrive, the customer who notices this device should pull it out and hand it over to an employee of the bank.

Megedoth said, "Our customers are key partners in these efforts". "We encourage everyone to pay careful attention to the card readers they use frequently, whether at the bank or any other point of sale and inform the proprietor immediately if they notice anything unusual."

Doug Nicholas

Doug Nicholas, a financial consultant by profession with a Masters degree in International Business from Brown University, is also an ardent writer. Though he has a full time job at one of the companies listed on Wall Street, he does manage to squeeze in time to follow his passion. He puts his ideas to words in his articles related to finance and business.