Credit and Debit Card Skimmers – How to Defend Yourself

You might have heard this term “Card Skimmers“), on TV or read about it in the newspaper, but what is it and how can you protect yourself and your credit card?  Credit Card Skimming in where someone will intercept your credit card data either directly or indirectly.  Let’s look at a few examples that will explain the difference.

Skimming at Gas Pumps-This is where the bad guys will open the gas pump by force or by picking the lock.  They will attach a device to the credit card reader and that device will intercept your credit card information.  The device sends that information to the bad guys or they will retrieve the card skimmers every few days.

Skimming at ATM’s-This is where the bad guys will use some type of card skimmer and they will also use a person that will have a clear view of the ATM key pad, for the purpose of getting your pin code.

Skimming at Restaurants-In this type of skimming the person you hand your credit card to will scan it twice, once for the restaurant and once for themselves.  They will use their own credit card reader to scan and collect your credit card data.

The examples above are skimming that you can run into every day.  There are other ways for your credit card information to be stolen; however, you usually do not have any control over them.  This will be by hacking your data such as the recent Target theft.

So how can you protect yourself from Card Skimmers?

• Always be aware of your surroundings; if the gas pump looks like it has been tampered with move to another pump or a different gas station.
• At the ATM stand fully in front of the machine and use your hand to cover the key pad.
• Make sure that nobody is standing near you while you are at the ATM, if so find another one.
• At a restaurant ask if they can bring over a portable credit card reader to your table and scan your card there, this way your card never leaves your possession.
• If you get a feeling that something isn’t right, listen to that gut feeling and move on.
• Use a credit card instead of a debit card, you have better protection

To fix this problem the banking and credit card industry must change and it appears that they are.  Over the next few years your new credit cards will have a chip embedded in them.  This chip will replace the magnetic strip.  In the beginning the cards will have both.  All merchants must also change their card reader, so this is going to be a very long fix, but it’s a start.

For additional information please call 800.657.LOCK (5625) or www.lsidepot.com.