How does Fraud Happen on the ATM?
ATM fraud has grown so rampant that many cardholders have been defrauded of the money that they keep in their ATM accounts. This criminal activity is not just happening in foreign countries, but in the Philippines, as well.
There are various ways by which fraud is done. Some are less techy than others:
1. The “Shoulder Surfer”
This non-techy way to steal the cardholder’s PIN is done when the person standing behind the cardholder presses too close to see you key-in your PIN. Memorizing the cardholder’s PIN is easier when the cardholder needs to withdraw several times over. By putting a card skimming device that captures the cardholder’s information, the criminal’s capability to commit fraud increases tenfold.
2. The Charmingly Helpless Girl
For the less-than-techy criminal, employing a charmingly pretty girl who pretends to be helpless about using her ATM is also a way to commit the crime. The modus operandi goes this way: Charmingly Helpless Girl pretends that she is unable to transact. She acts embarrassed that there is a long queue at the ATM machine because of her so she then tells the person behind her to go ahead and transact. Meanwhile, Charmingly Helpless Girl remains with the victim inside the vestibule on the pretext that the cardholder will teach her how to transact. Then, it is just a matter of memorizing the PIN Number since the ATM Card Skimming Device is already in Place.
3. Big Brother’s Watching You
Since the “Shoulder Surfer” is easy to shoo away and Charmingly Helpless Girl act is not full-proof, some criminals have decided to go high tech. By putting a hidden camera either near the ATM or under the PIN Shield, it is easier to discover your PIN. Again, the ATM card skimming device is already there to read your ATM’s account number.
4. It’s an Unwired World
For free standing or offsite ATMs, hackers find it easy to obtain account information by employing Wifi scanners and cracking programs to download transaction data if these data are unprotected by high-tech encryption software.
5. Scheming with the Skimming Device
To enable the criminals to easily obtain the cardholder’s ATM account data from the magnetic stripe of the ATM card, a Skimming Device is planted on the card reader of the ATM. All ATM cards will then be read by the Skimming Device. By pairing it with the ATM PINs from the camera or from the peeping tom, the criminals are able to clean out the cardholders’ accounts.
6. The Pretend PIN PAD
Aside from putting a Skimming Device and a camera, the fraudsters also put a PIN PAD Overlay. This looks exactly like an ATM PIN PAD, but is used to read the cardholder’s PIN Number.