’Tis the season: 9 tips to prevent credit card skimmers from stealing your cash

By Jean-Jacques DeLisle, contributing writer

Credit card skimmers are used by a new type of information thief: one who steals valuable, personal, and financial information. Specifically, credit card skimmer technology enables such thieves to hijack ATMs, gas pumps, and other credit card pay systems for the information on the magnetic strip of the credit card, debit card, and PIN codes. This information can be used to fraudulently purchase items or can be sold to a third party interested in such illegal information. Many of the advanced techniques, often custom-crafted or for sale online, use wireless technologies to more seamlessly blend with the normal look and operation of an ATM or pay system.

Visually inspect the terminal prior to inserting your card. Image source: Pixabay.

As a diverse mix of homebrewed and off-the-shelf electronics, credit card skimmers can often gather magnetic strip information, pictures, images, and/or keypad inputs from the infiltrated pay terminal. Some credit card skimmer systems are very sophisticated and can capture card PIN data from either a hijacked keyboard or hidden video camera, and the card reader data can be wirelessly transmitted to a collection hub. The credit card skimmer tech can either be installed internally after the pay terminal was physically breached or be an easily installed add-on to the card-swipe fixture or keypad that only minimally changes the outward appearance of the terminal.

Some of these credit card skimmer wireless systems operate with cell service and will automatically update a financial data thief’s database. This data can then be used to create false credit cards from blanks or be used to falsify online purchases, monthly transfers, and other fraudulent electronic payments.

Many organizations and banks have adopted EMV chips to combat against financial data theft from pay terminals, and smartphone-based pay systems are also more secure than traditional card-swipe pay systems. However, a pay terminal must be compatible with these newer technologies to work, and their rollout is still in progress. Moreover, these technologies are secure for now, but it’s possible that future financial data theft technologies will be able to circumvent these new systems.

For now, it’s still likely that caution could prevent theft of your credit card and debit card information. The following are a few tips on identifying and thwarting credit card skimmer technologies:

1. Visually inspect the terminal prior to inserting your card. If the terminal looks like it has been tampered with, it may not be worth the risk.
2. Inspect the keypad to ensure that it hasn’t been tampered with or that a false keypad hasn’t been placed over it.
3. Physically examine the critical components of the card reader for defects. This could involve seeing if any components, such as the card reader slot, keypad, or ATM camera are loose or out of place.
4. If something seems out of place, all pay terminals have contact information to the company that manages them. A call could help to ensure that better security measures are taken and lower future risk from that terminal or terminals like it.
5. Shield the keypad with your hand when entering financial information, such as a PIN.
6. Some newer Bluetooth skimmers could be caught by programs, like Skimmer Scanner for Android. This only works on known hardware and isn’t a foolproof method.
7. Use only EMV chip or contactless pay systems, such as Android Pay, Apple Pay, or Samsung Pay.
8. Consistently monitor each of your financial transactions to ensure that they are accurate and that no fraudulent charges have been placed.
9. Regularly replace or request new credit cards and debit cards, and change the PIN for your debit cards. Though this can sometimes be a hassle, regularly changing financial information can prevent any stolen data from being used after a certain period of time.