ATM scam Nostrand Ave

brooklynmaman

hi there,

I don't know if it's just a one time scam but it's better to be cautious: last weekend my husband took out some money out of the ATM at the Chase bank on Nostrand Av/Church Ave. He did not leave his card there (and the card was with him all day) and he is pretty sure he checked out (clicked the "no other transaction" button) but just after that someone was somehow able to empty our account.

I'm still trying to figure out how that could happen - any of you heard about similar stories?

eastbloc

A 'skimmer' can be installed on an ATM which reads the card data and sends it to hackers. Usually, these are installed in conjunction with video equipment that records you entering your PIN.

Writing the magnetic strip data back to a card is fairly trivial, and with your PIN the perpetrators can go remove money from any ATM.

You can usually notice the skimmers if you look carefully, but people casually withdrawing money often don't pay attention to that, particularly at a bank ATM (as opposed to some sketchy bodega outfit).

eastbloc

eastbloc

Here's an assortment of skimmers that shows off the creativity of these individuals:

http://krebsonsecurity.com/tag/atm-skimmer/

As one example points out, the skimmer can just as easily be installed at the door to the bank rather than on the ATM.

brooklynmaman

Thanks for the info - crazy stuff

The bank representative did not seem very surprised. The customer service immediately accepted to putt the money back on our account, but were not eager to talk about what happened, I guess they are not too proud of their job securying their ATM's...

eastbloc

I really was tempted to go there and inspect the facility myself, but I did not have time and I figured they would have moved quickly to investigate and remediate the issue.

I'm glad you got your money back quickly. Sometimes the process takes a while.