Personal security: ATM skimming

[RPB]

I almost always use Discover card. (but have to use a different card or cash until my new card arrives)

1) My dad on a trip from Indiana to Houston stayed in a motel, in Texarkana, Discover called days later about the flowers he sent some lady when he rented a limousine in California.... some truck driver got arrested for getting the extra copy if the receipts. Dad didn't need to pay anything.

2) about 30 years ago I bought about $1.80 bottle of Brake/Transmission something fluid at an Auto Parts store in Pasadena; Discover called "Didi you go to a beauty shop and go Christmas shopping and buy thousands of dollars at Toys-R-Us today? Nope ... I didn't have to pay anything

3) This incident .... March 15, 2011 ...I don't have to pay anything

I pay nothing for alerts or anything, they just do it, yes they offer credit card protection, but it's the credit card company that loses I don't buy insurance for them, and won't until they pay for insurance for me. I get hundreds in cash back, and never pay a penny in interest, it's like a discount on everything. (I was one of Discover card's "original customers" when they went into business in 1985, they like me)

[VMI77]

Also, check these out, they're pretty sophisticated, I doubt I'd be able to tell unless I was very familiar with the particular machines: http://krebsonsecurity.com/2010/02/atm- ... s-part-ii/

Those are scary. I also probably would not notice, especially if I was using a machine in an unfamiliar location and in a hurry (which I admit I sometimes do).

This stuff has to be done by organized criminal gangs. As I said above, they are not garage projects.

- Jim

You wondered in a previous post where sophisticated devices like these may be manufactured? My son suggests China as a possibility. He says bootleg CD's and DVD's are often made in the same production facilities as legitimate ones. The bootlegs have the origin data around the hub removed with acid. Likewise, people may be using ATM production facilities to make skimmers --which I guess could also occur in other countries as well, perhaps here too.

[seamusTX]

I don't put any dodgy activity beyond the reach of the newly liberated citizens of the People's Republic of China. It's the "Wild East" without the horses and guns.

However, the former Warsaw Pact and USSR countries are not immune from this kind of thing. They have a lot of intelligent, educated people looking for opportunities. A lot of sophisticated spam and viruses come from there.

- Jim