Skimming usually takes place in a retail store, restaurant or a shop. A dishonest waiter or cashier may swipe your credit card for payment and then swipe it again with a skimmer. This is a small pager-sized device with a slot, which can be easily purchased over the Internet. It rapidly records the information stored on the credit card’s magnetic strip. This information is passed onto thieves who paste it onto counterfeit credit cards. Your money is now in their hands. The only way to prevent this is to keep a close watch on your credit card.
Skimming also takes place at ATMs, especially in less-supervised non-bank areas like malls. They are set up for skimming before your arrival. It could be a plastic sheet inserted inside the slot, which prevents the machine from reading your card. A small camera fitted on the ATM records your PIN number while you try repeatedly to access your account. You leave believing that the ATM has swallowed your card. The thief turns up and takes your card and the camera. He can now withdraw large amounts from your account.
A superior technique allows you to withdraw cash but a camera records your PIN number while a skimmer inside the ATM reads your credit card.
How To Avoid Skimming
To reduce skimming-related risks, simply walk away if you find anything suspicious about the ATM. If the machine swallows your card, report it immediately.
Apart from these measures, always check your credit card statements carefully for surprise purchases. Keep low credit limits to minimize losses. Tear up all receipts, slips and statements after using them, preferably with a shredder. Credit card companies are also vigilant. They usually ring up customers immediately if they find unusual purchasing patterns. Newer technologies in credit cards and ATM machines also make skimming impossible. However, the changes are not yet universal. Till then, keep your eyes on your credit card.
It can be easy to run a credit card scam, such as this, when you give your credit card to a store employee in order to make a purchase.Your credit card may not only be swiped at the register to pay for your purchase, but it also may be swiped with a little hand-held machine known as a skimmer.The skimmer can retain the information on hundreds of debit and credit cards and then it is used by unscrupulous people to print counterfeit cards.There are skimming rings working nearly in every corner of the world and as soon as your information is put into the skimmer, it is then downloaded into a computer and is ready to be emailed to anyone worldwide.About ten years ago it was not as easy to accomplish this fraud as it can be today, because the skimmers were large, bulky machines which had to be hidden under the counter in the store.
The improvement in the technology of the machines used in this skimming process over the past ten years has made it quite easy to hide the hand-held skimmer out of the sight of the customer who is interested in making the purchase.The skimmers may be purchased much too easily over the internet for around three hundred dollars, but the credit card producing machine is more expensive, coming in at about five thousand to ten thousand dollars.
Another form of skimming is done by placing a skimmer bug directly into the credit card terminals and then retrieving it later with credit card information on it.With the introduction of the newer credit card terminals, this bugging scam is no longer the problem it can be with the older terminals which are much easier to violate in this way.
After the credit card scam artists have their needed information on you, they will quickly start their shopping sprees and charge it to your credit card number.Credit card fraud over the internet has increased greatly with the popularity of online shopping because the credit card information can easily fall into the wrong hands through the web sites used.The internet is also used by the thieves to make certain that the card's information is valid through the purchase of many low ticket items to be assured that the card is active.
The cardholder is most times just held responsible for up to fifty dollars of the total amount charged on the card, but the real victim in this crime is the merchant who had the employee who did the skimming.The merchant is responsible for payment of the fees for the investigation of the fraud which has taken place and he also is held one hundred percent responsible for the skimming activity and risks the loss of the merchandise.The investigation fees paid to the credit card companies by credit consumers and businesses they frequent is the revenue used to offset the costs of investigating charge-back claims by their customers.
It is common knowledge of the criminals who perform these scams that a purchase of at least $2000 must be made before an investigation is begun.
Both Zack Nelson & Alisdair Cosgrove are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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Alisdair Cosgrove has sinced written about articles on various topics from Auto Insurance, Credit Cards and Insurance Quotes. Alisdair Cosgrove is a freelance writer specializing in personal finance. You can read more of his work at www.JSNet.org for credit card comparisons including. Alisdair Cosgrove's top article generates over 74000 views. to your Favourites.