They have become as familiar as any American standby.We’re talking about ATM’s.
Because we have become comfortable with the automated teller machines, they have also become the target of scammers.
You should probably feel safe at an ATM right outside your bank. But be aware.
"Actual fraudulent stand alone ATM'S. In some kind of public space like a mall, someone sets up a phony device - either an old second ATM or something that's designed to look like an ATM where you put a card in, put in your information and then you get a message, service unavailable come again later,” said Ken Newman, Central Pacific Bank technology officer.
And of course, by then, the bad guys have your debit or credit card information. How do you protect yourself?
"Awareness and common sense are always the most important things. So you should always be suspicious about an ATM in a new space that you've never seen before, where there never was one, it suddenly appeared,” said Newman.
Criminals can even use legitimate ATM machines by using what are called skimmers that fit right over the regular card slot.
"So that when the card goes into the ATM, it's passing the skimmer first that's collecting the card data. Then somewhere nearby on the ATM, they'll have a small camera and they'll use the camera pointed at the keyboard to record the PIN strokes,” said Newman.
ATM'S aren't the only places "skimmers" are employed.
Just this year, there were arrests of people using the devices at self-serve gas stations.
"So we see more and more skimmers being placed right there and then it's not just the ATM card and the PIN, you're using debit cards and credit cards so they're collecting card data, they're creating fraudulent cards and then they're using that to commit fraud,” said Newman.
CPB and other banks are becoming more pro-active -- checking on their ATM's on a more frequent basis.
"Not to mention that there's regular video surveillance on all the devices. So if there's any questions, we can just pull up that surveillance, go back and look and see if anybody was loitering around the machine,” said Newman.
If you have a question for our financial experts, send us an email to dollarsandsense@khon2.com.
