By Keith writing for Scambusters
Usually occurring at ATMs, skimming devices that steal credit and debit card info are now discovered in gas pumps and restaurants: Internet Scambusters #423
Crooks have gas pumps in their sights in the latest wave of card skimming scams.
They install devices, invisible to staff and customers, which read details off credit and debit cards and can even secretly film the keying of PIN numbers.
This week, we explain this latest version of a multi-billion dollar scam that also steals card information from ATMs.
Security experts say that skimming, the process of secretly reading data off your credit and debit cards, could be netting crooks as much as $3 billion a year in the US.
That’s the word from the US Secret Service, via the banking community’s educational website BankInfoSecurity.com, which claims ATM skimming is now the fastest-growing electronic fraud risk for financial institutions.
It’s some consolation that, if your card gets skimmed, your bank or other issuer will probably make good on the loss, provided you report the incident promptly.
But if the card details are also used for identity theft, you could spend months trying to sort out the damage.
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