ATM Card Skimmers

ATM skimming is like identity theft for debit cards: Thieves use hidden electronics to steal the personal information stored on your card and record your PIN number to access all that hard-earned cash in your account. That's why skimming takes two separate components to work. The first part is the skimmer itself, a card reader placed over the ATM's real card slot [source: Krebs]. When you slide your card into the ATM, you're unwittingly sliding it through the counterfeit reader, which scans and stores all the information on the magnetic strip.

However, to gain full access to your bank account on an ATM, the thieves still need your PIN number.  Some ATM skimming schemes employ fake keypads in lieu of cameras to capture PIN numbers. Just like the card skimmers fit over the ATM's true card slot, skimming keypads are designed to mimic the keypad's design and fit over it like a glove. If you notice that the keypad on your ATM seems to protrude oddly from the surface around it, or if you spy an odd color change between the pad and the rest of the ATM, it could be a fake.

Can you guess what kind of credentials it takes to purchase an automated teller machine online? If you guessed "none whatsoever," you're right! All it takes is a quick look on eBay to see ATMs for sale that anyone could buy.If hackers or skimmers gain access to the information stored on your debit card's magnetic strip, they may be able to make purchases without bothering to discover your PIN. ATM withdrawals require the PIN number, but online retailers don't need it -- and some of them don't ask for the debit/credit card security codes, either.

If ATM skimming is so serious and high-tech now, what dangers do we face with our debit and credit cards in the future? The next evolution for credit cards revolves around RFID tags -- and those can be skimmed, too. More on these later.