2021 has seen an increase in the number of credit card skimmers being used across the USA. 

What are credit card skimmers?

Credit card skimmers are devices that criminals attach to ATMs, gas pumps, and any other payment terminals to steal your card’s information. Skimmers come in all shapes, sizes and varying degrees of complexity.

Ways to help prevent having your card skimmed.

1. Use your eyes: Look before you insert your card.

Before you slide your card in a fuel pump or ATM, take a good look at the keyboard and card reader. With fuel pumps, check to see if the seal broken. To place a skimmer inside a fuel pump, fraudsters must open the fuel dispenser door to insert the skimmer. Station employees may place serial-numbered security tape across the dispenser door, so check to see if the tape has been broken. If there’s no tape, check to see if the dispenser door looks as though it has been forced open. 

2. Use your fingers: If something doesn’t feel right, move on.

Wiggle the ATM card reader to see if it’s loose. The crooks might place a card reader on top of the existing one. Also be wary if it’s hard to insert your credit card or debit card.

3. Use your phone: Apps now can alert you to possible skimmers.

A free Skimmer Scanner Android app released in September 2017 scans for available Bluetooth connections looking for a device with title HC-05. How does it work? If found, the app will attempt to connect using the default password of 1234. Once connected, the letter ‘P’ will be sent. If a response of ‘M’ then there is a very high likelihood there is a skimmer in the Bluetooth range of your phone (5 to 15 feet). If your smartphone detects a skimmer, use a different pump or go to a different gas station.

4. Use your common sense: Use fuel pumps and ATMs in safe places.

Avoid gas pumps that are out of sight of the clerk and ATMs in areas with little traffic. It’s particularly important to be cautious at nonbank ATMs, such as those located at convenience stores or nightclubs. Nonbank ATMs accounted for the majority of compromised devices in 2016. 

At any ATM, always cover the keyboard when you type your PIN. There might be a new cardboard box containing literature next to the ATM, which crooks set up to conceal a pinhole camera. They use the camera to record you as you key in your PIN.

So what else can you do to protect your card information when you’re out shopping, using an ATM or filling your gas tank?

Law officers and gas pump and ATM experts suggest:

• Pay inside, with cash or a credit card, rather than at the pump.

There is less chance a fraudster placed a card skimmer on the payment terminal in front of the clerk inside the gas station or convenience store. 

• Choose pumps closest to a physical building.

Also, for obvious personal safety reasons, do not use fuel pumps or ATMs hidden around the corner of the building. Avoid sketchy ATMs. 

• Use a credit card, not a debit card, when you pay.

If a credit card number is skimmed, you’re playing with the bank’s money and protected by the card’s zero-liability policy. A stolen debit card number could yield far worse damage, since the victim if giving the criminal access to their cash. 

• Use your issuer’s fraud alerts and check your card statements.

Set up fraud alerts on your credit cards. Nearly every issuer offers these, and many will email and/or text you when your card is used at a gas station. Check your credit card and debit card transactions frequently to make sure no fraudulent activity has occurred.

• Consider paying or withdrawing cash with your digital wallet. 

If you have Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Android Pay – or your card issuer, bank or gas station’s mobile wallet – paying by phone is an incognito way to fuel up or withdraw cash at an ATM offering cardless access. By paying at phone at gas stations, your card never goes in the payment reader that may contain a skimmer.