New way to skim your card.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Actually reported to me by a friend who says it actually happened to him. In London. a week ago,

Goes to standard ATM.outside branch of own bank Does the usual. Card never appears at the 'take your card' phase. Neither does money. ATM then blinks and says 'out of order'.

Thinking its jammed, and the card will be returned, thinks no more of it. Till come Monday, bank account emptied. Police say 'ah yes, we know that one. It works like this'.

Crims have special spring clip that stops card being ejected. This is simply pushed into place through the card slot.

Crims have own surveillance camera mounted up high across the street, or man in bedsits with video cam or binoculars..

Crims watch to see when card is used, wait till bemused customer wanders off, use special tool to retrieve card.

Crims review video surveillance to ID PIN.

Crims use card till its exhausted.

Moral: If card is eaten by ATM put a block on it immediately. If possible and bank its attached to is open, alert bank.

[Davey]

I always get my cash as Cash Back at the supermarket, they always have card readers that only take the end of the card, not the whole card.

[Mark]

Is is visible or inside the machine?

I'd have thought this would be very difficult unless the camera was mounted in the ATM itself. It's likely that the victim's hand or body would obsure the PIN.

Or wait at the ATM until the machine realizes that there is a problem?

[tim.....]

Has he been on the moon for the past 10 years?

Surely everyone must know by now that there are criminals (gangs) that block up machine so that they can "win" cards and that if this happens to you you should ring the number displayed on the machine immediately (though, of course this may not always be possible)

[Stephen Early]

This is called a "Lebanese Loop". There are some interesting pictures if you google it!

Stephen Early

[Andrew Gabriel]

Barclays machines have been protected against this for probably 5 years or more. Once you've put the card in, the machine spits it out and takes it in again, to make sure there's nothing in the card's path, before it will ask for your PIN.

[newshound]

Never realised this was deliberate! So simple, when you think about it.

[Mentalguy2k8]

Which has been known! There are all sorts of complete but fake front-bits which look identical to the real thing but which have card-readers and cameras built in.

Not if the "watcher" was at an angle, ie not directly behind the cardholder. I've stood behind plenty of people at cashpoints and in shops who only seem to try and hide their PIN from the person right behind them. If you're standing at around 45 degrees from their right hand, it's not too difficult to see it. And these gangs are experienced and well-trained.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I usually stand in front of the ATM when entering my PIN, so it would be quite some camera which could get my pin from across the street.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Quite. And, of course, the obvious answer is only to use a machine after you've seen someone else use it OK. In London, this would mean hanging around for all of five seconds. ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It is possible for someone standing behind you to read the pin. Or in a shop, a ceiling mounted camera. But one across the street?

[whisky-dave]

Too right and then it's out of cash ;-

[AC]

Which is probably a criminal offence in it's self. Loafing around an ATM watching people use it is never going to look good.

[AC]

Yeah, I do wonder how people are standing in front of ATMs such that a camera from "across the street" can see through you, then down at the key pad. I mean, who doesn't stand in front of the ATM while pressing the buttons? You'd need a camera attached to the ATM looking down. And they must surely get fairly obvious to spot.

[AC]

In fact I used to see it as an irritating fault...

[Tim Streater]

When using an ATM, you should always:

1) Look to see if there's been anything added to the slot where you put your card in. That slot should look like it's smoothly integrated into the machine. 2) Look *up* at the ceiling of the ATM, the bit that is directly above the keypad. That is where the PIN-stealing camera will be (not over the road, or on Mars) if there is one. That ceiling should also all be well sealed, with no grills or other odd looking spots that could have a camera behind them.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Remember reading about a scam in filling stations to get your pin at the till - a camera in the ceiling. Might not be so easy at an ATM. Is the keypad so far into the wall as to make this near impossible?

[The Natural Philosopher]

There are certain angles where it works

[Brian Gaff]

Not new, where has your friend been hiding? those pesky Eastern Europeans have been doing this for at least five years according to those proggies on cops on the telly. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

One thing though, how do they stop the machine actually dispensing the cash? I'm sure it tends to do that most times, but then goes wrong with a card jam. Brian