What is Credit Card Skimming

At the end of the month when you receive your bank and credit card statements, you notice fraudulent charges and/or money withdrawn from their accounts. You are completely confused as to how this could have happened when neither of the cards left your possession. Do not feel bad, you are not the only one that has been blindsided by this type of identity theft, which is called card skimming.

How It Works

The thieves use a device to steal your credit or debit card information in what appears to be a legitimate transaction. The devices are often placed on ATM machines, held in the hands of servers in a restaurant or a store employee. When your debit or credit card is run through the skimmer, the device stores the information, and then the thieves use the stolen data to make fraudulent charges either online or with a counterfeit credit card. With a debit or ATM card, the thieves withdraw cash from the linked checking account.

Skimming and How to Protect Yourself

These incidents can be difficult to detect since the cards are neither stolen nor lost. About the only way to detect a skimmed credit or debit card is to watch your accounts frequently. Monitor your accounts online daily and immediately report any suspicious activity.

Some of the places where you could have your card skimmed is at a restaurant, a bar, department stores, and gas stations. The reason is that for some reason or other, card holders are comfortable letting their cards leave their sight in these types of places. This false sense of security could lead to having your card skimmed, because if you cannot see your card, you do not know what is happening to it.

With an ATM machine before you use it, make sure that there are no devices attached to it, especially a camera within view of the keypad to steal your PIN number. The thieves may also place a fake key pad on top of the real one to record your key strokes.

Here are some identity theft protection tips to remember when using any ATM machine:

• Cover your hand as you type in your PIN number to keep a camera from catching a view of what you are typing
• If the keys seem hard to push, eject your card and use another ATM.
• Watch for lurkers, which are people who get to close to you when you use the ATM machine and try to look over your shoulder to see what you are typing.

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