Is it time to return to checks to avoid ATM theft?

Just when you thought life couldn’t get any worse for the poor ATM, the bad guys have come up with a nifty new tool—the “deep-insert skimmer.” Similar to the black boxes used by thieves for ATM theft, the deep-insert skimmer cannot be seen by the naked eye. Is it time to say, “Bye, bye, ATM?”

Brian Krebs was probably the one to break this ATM theft story first when he wrote, Crooks Go Deep with Deep ATM Skimmers. If you want all the details about how this new scam works, Brian’s post will enlighten you. For most consumers, though, all we want to know is how does this affect me? The answer is, you may not know until it’s too late.

Let’s begin with the really bad news about ATM theft: NCR doesn’t have a way to detect a deep-insert skimmer in an ATM at this time. They’re working on it, but for now, there’s no magic cure. Also, the skimmer is actually inside the machine and virtually undetectable from the outside. I say virtually undetectable because the crooks still need your PIN to make their efforts worthwhile. Thus, they use tiny cameras to capture your PIN as you enter it.

Unlike the old ATM skimmers, which were disposable, the new skimmers are retrievable. Thus, one could be inserted into a machine and removed before anyone knew the machine had been compromised. Some of the new cameras use their own chip to store the captured PINs, whereas others transmit a weak radio signal with the information.

Short of throwing away your ATM card altogether, what’s a consumer to do? One way to at least slow the bad guys down is to always cover the keypad with your other hand before you enter your PIN. This won’t stop the thieves from getting your card information, but it will at least prevent them from getting your PIN. The other solution is to use ATMs where there are security cameras. Again, this isn’t a perfect solution, but it does reduce the chances someone might have compromised the machine.