We sent this to the Jeffco Sheriff's Office to ask if this was sound advice and they confirmed it was. This is a quick and easy way to check the ATM or gas pump you are about to use to find out if it's had a skimmer attached. It's not fool-proof; but, it's something we'd never heard you could do to at least try to check it, so we are passing the advice along. Simply pull on the part where you insert your credit card - thieves often don't attach them tightly because they don't want to draw suspicion spending much time at the pump or ATM. The video in the story below from CBS 46 in Atlanta demonstrates how.
One of the more successful tools of 21st-century crooks is the skimmer. Thieves attach them to ATMs, gas pumps, point-of-sales (POS) systems and other places people swipe their credit and debit cards. Once in place, this sneaky bit of electronics steals the magnetic strip information from your card.
The thieves use this information to clone your card, and once they have a clone, they can drain your bank account, or run up huge bills and trash your credit before you even know it. That's one reason credit card companies and stores are switching to EMV cards, but it will take a while before every retailer accepts them.
That's why you need to know how to spot a skimmer before it snags your information.
There is now an Android app that can search and detect gas pump skimmers based on their Bluetooth fingerprint.
The app — Skimmer Scanner — was put together by Nate Seidle, CEO of SparkFun, a Colorado-based electronics firm. Seidle uploaded the app on the official Google Play Store and open-sourced its code on GitHub for public review.
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