Crooks trying to steal your vital credit and debit card data had been largely limiting themselves to ATM machines. No more. Any business where your card gets swiped is now a place where thieves can swipe your data.
The counter-measure: BE ALERT. BE VERY ALERT.
The unending struggle between consumers and card skimmers is entering a new arena.
Lots of new arenas, actually.
Card skimming is a form of identity theft in which crooks use simple, easily and legally obtained electronic gadgets to steal the card number and your PIN number off your credit or debit card.
As we’ve discussed before here on IBIT, these thieves have been targeting ATMS, automated teller machines. We’ve also talked about ways to protect yourself.
Now, as inevitably happens with crooks and con artists, the bad guys are stepping up their game. No longer are they content to catch you unawares at the ATM before you go to the store.
They’re now looking to intercept your precious card data in the stores themselves.
An identity ring rigged the card readers at the Michaels chain of craft stores, those little calculator-like pads on the cashier’s counter that you swipe your card through to make a purchase.
As Leslie Meredith of TechNews Daily reports, they hit more than 900 Michaels stores nationwide.
Read the entire TechNews Daily story here.
The skimming gear used on bank ATMs has always had a certain size to it that made it relatively easy to detect if you were careful. Apparently, the crooks’ technology, all of it most likely legal and easily obtained from electronic shops, has become smaller and harder to spot.
Did a chill just run down your spine? Mine, too.
As the San Jose Mercury-News reported in Northern California, they’re even doing it now at gas stations, attaching skimming equipment to the pumps, just as they do to the ATMs.
Basically, what this all mean is that nowhere can be considerably absolutely safe anymore for your plastic. Any business where your card gets swiped through a card reader is a place where thieves can potentially swipe your card data.
Eventually, US banks and businesses will dump our obsolete and utterly magnetic stripe technology on which card readers now depend. They’ll follow Europe’s lead and store your card information on embedded computer chips, which are much harder for the crooks to crack.
Even then, however, your card won’t be entirely safe from identity thieves.
Does this mean you need to lock all your plastic away for life? No. It does mean you can no longer take any location for granted when it comes to using your cards.
The price of using your plastic in the 21st century is constant, constant vigilance.
By you, Mr. and Ms. Consumer.
Dan Kadlec of CBS MoneyWatch, himself a victim of identity theft also lists suggestions for beating the skimmers, including one I hadn’t seen before: Wiggle your card.
Also, avoid rundown-looking businesses when using your cards, especially gas stations. The grubbier they are, the less likely that its owners/operators pay close attention to things like security.
But again, don’t automatically presume that any place is safe. Due diligence, do diligence, always.
Bottle line, this battle will never end. Some slug looking for easy money will always be out there, looking for a slick electronic way to steal yours. Stay alert, and you can stay ahead of him.