It seems like everyday there is a story popping up about someone finding an ATM skimmer somewhere in the United States. From large cities, to small towns, those little buggers just keep making the news. FICO even points to tracking a 546 percent increase in ATM skimming attacks from 2014 to 2015 alone. But with skimming on the rise just how easy is it for some crafty criminal to actually get their hands on one?
Well, it’s pretty damn easy actually. The internet is a magical place that offers up pretty much anything that you could want or imagine. From shopping to news, from games to porn, to even things like ZOMBO.COM, the internet has just about everything. But with that “everything” comes easy access to things that people probably shouldn’t be able to buy.
If you head over to Alibaba.com, one of the largest online retailers in the world, and simply type “ATM skimmer” in the search bar, you’ll be quite surprised with what you can find. Our cursory search brought up 72 pages on ATM skimmers and parts to aid in the practice. These things aren’t even hidden with fancy code words or insider lingo that only criminals know. One seller even has the balls to have Australian QPS Detective Superintendent Brain Hay (head of Queensland Police Fraud Corporate Crime Group) holding a pair of skimmers like some bizarro advertisement.
All someone has to do is order these skimmers along with some basics parts and you are all set to steal credit cards on a variety of machines. Chances are that the rise of ATM skimmers is partly due to the insane ease in which one can legally buy these parts wholesale online, in plain view and get them delivered to your door by the nice UPS person. Alibaba even lists the companies doing this as well as the amount of money they have brought in broken down by sale. One seller alone has racked up over $40,000 with only six sales!
These ATM skimmers are of incredibly high quality and where once a criminal would have to go through a lot of difficult steps before even attempting to get a skimmer installed (and most were quite bad and obvious), now they just need to click order and pay via PayPal. If you do use an ATM or credit card reader out in public (and who doesn’t) it wouldn’t hurt to give the thing a good twist and pull just to make sure. There are so many variations out there now that it’s just a good practice to add the move to your ATM routine.
References:
BoingBoing – http://bit.ly/29iKeha
Courier Mail – http://bit.ly/29mS7Du
FICO – http://bit.ly/29sF3cb
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