Hey guys, I just got back from the bank, where I found out some dirtbag cloned my ATM card somehow and went on a mall shopping spree. Yesterday I was using an ATM that I have used many times before in a CVS Pharmacy by my work. This time though the machine reset itself, right after I had entered my number in. I thought that was kinda strange. I watched it for a few minutes as it went up through it's boot cycle (which it ran OS 2 warp, for some reason.) Unfortuneatly, I'm not super computer savvy enough to be able to tell what's going on with a machine just by looking at it's startup process (never mind the fact that I've also never seen an ATM starup before, I wouldn't know if something's wrong with it or what.) I shrugged it off, and checked my balance later in the day at a different machine. Everything was cool. Earlier today at lunch after eating quite possibly the world's best hamburger for some reason my atm card didn't work when I went to pay. The girl gave me the "Sometimes these machines don't work" spiel. I wouldn't have been suspicious except for the freak resetting ATM thing that happened yesterday. So on the way home from work I stopped in at the bank to check my balance, and sure enough someone had spent $300 out my account. Whoever it was somehow managed to hack or otherwise comprimise that ATM in the pharmacy, then cloned the card and went shopping at the stupid mall (Macy's and Fredricks of Hollywood, fucking lingerie of all things...) Luckily I caught it early, and whoever it was apparently didn't have my atm pin number as all the transactions were credit transactions (i.e. they had to sign for them like a credit card.) So luckily my savings were protected. So now I just got to spend the last hour closing out my account, opening a new account, and having the guy explain to me in intricate detail exactly what I need to do in order to file a fraud claim and get my $300 back. I guess I should consider myself lucky as it was "only" $300 that the bank covers during the fraud investigation, my account was not frozen, I still have access to the money I have left, I hadn't deposited my paycheck for this week, and I caught it early enough to prevent any more cash from disappearing. This same shit happened to a friend of mine and his bank totally froze everything. So anyway, if you're out using a money machine and suddenly it reboots for no reason, you know what's going on. No one ever gets to make fun of me for being paranoid ever again.
i'm sorry to hear that. that's terrible. so they hacked an atm? that's crazy. i probably would have stuck around the atm until it was done booting up. i wonder how they got the information/card to make purchases or if he just got a number...
You know, I have no idea how they did it. There was no one standing around or looking over my shoulder, and no weird devices attached to the front of it that I could notice (then again, I really wasn't looking.) The only thing I could possibly think of is whoever it was somehow spliced into the line somehow and hacked it that way, and somehow managed to change the dail-up settings of the modem (this was one of those machines where you can hear it dialing and connecting.) I don't even know. I actually hung around for a good 4 minutes or so as it was booting, but it hit a point where it seemed to be stuck or something, so I left. Guess I should have waited around longer. It's impressive I guess, but if you have this kind of skill you need to be using it for the forces of good.
so, if you didn't wait until the machine "returned to normal" then there might be chance your account was still pulled up right? but that wouldn't make sense that a machine would do that, reboot and have the last account active. they must have a hack on the machine itself. if this is the case, i'd probably try and call the owner of the ATM and warn them of the possibility and have the machine checked out.
Never use an ATM located in a gas station, also try not to use the card when paying at the pump as I've seen people put readers into those things in less than 30seconds and it would look as if no one tampered with it. That happened to me before, someone got a hold of the number on my card and ordered a few pizzas. Luckily my PIN wasn't compromised, just the number of my card and my bank refunded all my money and issued me a new atm card. Only use ATM located in the bank if you want to be as safe as possible and always cover the pin pad both on the left and right, and over your head (a camera can be right over you as you push your pin in. Just be careful of your surrounding and only use it in 'clean' places.
If they didn't get the PIN # it sounds more like someone swiped your card through a reader when you weren't looking rather than hacking the ATM. You would think that someone smart enough to hack an ATM would be able to capture the PIN # as well.
Yeah, thats what I was thinking. It's more likely they got the details off a till roll or a receipt. One time I had a card cloned they got the wrong expiry date and signature. The bank didn't notice and tried to deny that it was fraud. We don't tend to get local fraud now though because you almost always have to use your pin and not sign. So you get people in other countries using your card. The last time that happened their computer system froze my account, but I still had to pursuade the people at the bank that it was fraudulent use. Fortunately in the UK you can't be forced to pay for credit obtained for goods that you don't receive. Although you often have to fight it quite hard.
My advice: Don't have your savings in an account you can access via your ATM card. Bad luck, but as your say, at least you caught it early. The scary thing in the USA is that they never check your signature - or at least, I have never had that happen. I even signed for something as Mickey Mouse once to check. It went through fine. When I first moved here from the UK it freaked me out, but these days I have become used to it. However, every weekend I reconcile my account to make sure nothing weird is going on. For people outside the US, over here they PIN code your debit transactions but you sign for credit transactions. Stupid if you ask me, but that's the way it is. Also I think the PIN code purchase system is dangerous. They should give you a second PIN for purchasing that is different than the one you use for ATM machines.
I only use ATM machines (Caixas Eletrônicos in Brazil) inside the bank itself or in places with lots of people and security like shopping malls, because of these problems. One ATM near the place i work had something on it that kept logs of the card numbers, client names and passwords. Lots of people had problems because of that. Here, all banks have ATM machines inside them, i avoid using ATMs that are in gas stations, pharmacies and on the streets. There's no surveillance on those, so i don't take chances. Plus here in Brazil, all ATM machines don't let you get cash from 22:00 till 06:00. PS: I think all these machines run on OS/2. I already seen lots of these with "Out of order" signs on it, and when they were fixing the OS/2 logo appeared.
Well, if it wasn't that wonky resetting ATM that nailed me, then I have no idea where it could have been done. I do use my atm card quite often to buy things, as it's just convieneint. Guess this is just the world we live in.
Its official John Connor is real! Its sounds just like the scene in terminator 2 when John hacks that ATM machine with an Atari Portfolio. Sorry to here about it man good job you saw it early!
Restaurants or other places where the card leaves your sight is where this scam tends to happen the most. It could have been scanned long ago with a bunch of others and the time to use yours simply came up now. They also may have been taking small amounts you haven't noticed until this large one. If I were you I'd go through the last few months of your transactions and check for any irregularities you might have overlooked.
That's right. I never give my card to anyone. When i have to pay, i ask for the wireless card reader machine or i stand up and got to the cashier myself. Still not 100% safe, because the damn machine could be hacked. But better than give your card someone you don't know.
Here in Japan we had problems with people putting mini cameras over the ATM machines tat could read your number as you inputted it. This happened in banks and post offices !!! The ATM's here only let you take cash out between 6am and 7pm which I think is a bloody joke. There are special ATM's by lone companies but these have heavy commission. As for paying for stuff in stores, we've in the last year been asked to input a secret code number in to a machine rather than signing. I haven't got a clue what my number is though so I always sign. Still make sure the card doesn't leave my sight though. Yakumo
My friend just got his account stolen. A ton of 10$ charges from conecticut appeared a month ago, and it added up to 300$.
I'm pretty adamant about keeping track of my finances, so it was definetly just all on that day. This moring I went through the whole process with my credit union's loss prevention, turns out the perps did a small $5 charge at a Macys to test it out, then went to the langerie store and got the $300 item. Then whoever it was tried to buy something else for $195 but it was denied, becasue it was after I'd already noticed and went to the bank to cancel my account. Also both the transactions were keyed into the keypad (how they know this I don't know, but apparently the bank keeps track of wether the card is swiped or keyed in.) I don't know if this means they actually cloned a card or just got the salespeople to type the number in or what. You would think this would make it easy to catch them, but they've pretty much told me not to hold my breath as this kind of fraud is small potatoes. Luckily, I'm going to get all my money back, which is nice. Thing is I'm normally pretty paranoid about privacy issues (don't use credit cards over the internet, don't give out my name and address, etc.) But this kind of thing there isn't much you can do to defend against unless you just use cash for everything.
Usually its an inside thing. The people who did the transactions at macy's probably knew the person at the sales counter. In my situation, the people bought pizza with my card and since all places take credit cards over the phone, all you have to do is give out the number. Most people don't check the cards when they deliver the pizzas.
