Reader Finds Card Skimmer On Bank ATM

Reader Finds Card Skimmer On Bank ATM

By Chris Walters, 3:52 PM on Mon Apr 6 2009, 64,033 views

Dan says over the weekend he discovered a card skimmer attached to the ATM at his local WaMu branch. He pulled it off and took photos of it.
He writes:

This past weekend I went to use the local WaMu ATM to get some cash money. When I walked up to the ATM something struck me as funny…I couldn't quite put my finger on it but the card reader didn't look right, like it wasn't completely attached. I grabbed and pulled at the card reader and, lo and behold, it came off! It was actually a card skimmer attached to the ATM over that actual card reader. On the back there is a battery, flash memory card, and a mini USB port – it was set up so that ATM cards would first go through the skimmer and then into the ATM itself so you'd never know the difference. Fortunately I'd seen a news story about this sort of thing a couple of years back and have been paranoid ever since.
Watch out when you go to use an ATM!
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If the card reader on an ATM seems like it doesn't belong—and especially if it looks fragile or misaligned—go to another ATM. And let someone at that bank or store know that they may want to double-check their ATM for skimmers.

We asked Dan what he did with the skimmer after he found it, and he wrote back,

When this happened on Saturday night I immediately contacted WaMu - I was put on the phone with a supervisor who took some info (where the branch was located, what time). She then told me to either take it to the police or bring it to the branch on Monday (today). I stopped by the local police station and they told me to take it to the branch on Monday so they could run their own investigation and that the bank could file a police report if needed.
The policemen got a big kick out of the skimmer, saying they'd never seen one in person.
I still have the card skimmer myself and plan on turning it in to the branch in a few hours after work.
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Attack of the Card Skimmers: It's Happening Right Here, Right Now


By Andi Wang, 9:00 PM on Tue Apr 7 2009,

Previously on C.S.I... a man found an actual card skimmer in the wild, in the flesh. Today, Gizmodo reader Sean became the card skimmer/PIN camera's latest almost-victim. Where? Chase Bank in Manhattan, East Village.
Sean Seibel was inside a local Chase bank where he inserted his ATM card into one of two side-by-side automatic teller machines. When the machine told him it could not read his card, it took him a bit of jiggling to get his card back. He tried it a couple more times and got the same results. Before trying the other machine, he inspected the slot of the current ATM he was using and realized that it had a false plastic cover attached to the slot. The amazing thing about the cover was that the translucent green plastic matched the card reader slot perfectly, meaning that it was made specifically for Chase ATMs. After snapping a few photos with his iPhone, he alerted the branch manager and explained what happened.
As he was leaving, Seibel remembered reading about card skimmers having small cameras in the proximity in order to read PIN pad activity, so naturally, he went back to the ATM to inspect, which is where he found an extra mirror attached to the vandalized machine that the other ATMs didn't have. Drilled into the mirror was a tiny pinhole with a camera inside, directed at the PIN pad. Seibel alerted the branch manager again and asked Chase why they hadn't inspected the ATM after he had warned them the first time. Chase honestly replied that they hadn't thought of it because they had never encountered that sort of thing before.
From the crazy amounts of feedback we received last night after we posted the first story, it seems that card skimmers are a common crime everywhere from Thailand to Mexico. But actually hearing about it happening to our very own readers here in America makes us want to help get the word out. Seibel says it best: "Take this as a warning and please inspect every ATM machine you use, no matter how secure you think the environment is." [Thanks Sean!]

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