Yesterday’s tip was about how I save a lot of money on groceries when I’m home and when I’m traveling. Well, keeping with that theme, I thought I would share some advice that I just came across in a NY Post article titled: “Romanian mob is coming for your debit cards, with ATM-style skimmers now at self-checkouts: authorities warn.” RELATED: One Writer’s Best Travel Tip is One You’ve Never Heard Before
Unfortunately, since the pandemic, criminals seem to have become more brazen and thanks to technology, far more advanced. I’ve written in the past about always checking for skimmers at bank ATMs and gas stations (here’s how to spot an ATM skimmer) but had no idea I had to worry about them inside a grocery store, too.
According to the NY Post, “Debit card skimmers have long been problematic at gas stations and ATMs. Now a highly organized network of crooks is branching out. “They’ll have people sitting outside a Walmart or a Target, and it looks like they’re panhandling,” says Kimberly Edds, director of public affairs with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. “Sometimes they’ll have a couple of kids. And they are actually using Bluetooth technology that’s connected to the skimmers inside the stores. So it’s like a two for one, getting cash that people give them and stealing the numbers off the skimmers.”
VIDEO: Bet You Don’t Know What an ATM Credit Card Skimmer Looks Like
It’s obviously no fun to get ripped off and I seriously don’t know how these lowlife crooks can sleep at night. So I’m writing this to help spread the word and try and save at least one person for falling victim to this scheme.
Police advise consumers to tug on the credit card swipe or tap before inserting or tapping your card. If it wobbles or comes off, it’s fake.
CBS News in Minnesota ran a piece recently, showing viewers how to distinguish between a credit card machine that has a skimmer attached and one that doesn’t. Watch the video below to see the difference:
Below is another video of what a skimmer looks like in a grocery store.
Post by @frema_showsView on Threads
KEEP READING:
–Is Your Hotel Scamming You?
–Don’t Fall For It: Scammers Are Pretending to be Customs and Border Protection Agents
–Cybersecurity and Fraud Expert Shares Tips on How Not to Get Scammed When Traveling
–How To Avoid Vacation Rental Scams
–These Are the Latest European Travel Scams to Know Before You Go
–Don’t Fall For These QR Code Scams
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You reveal too much knowledge about SCAMMERS and prevention methods that scammers learn to advance their trickery. Now, these Newslinks should only be released privately so that SCAMMERS WONT KNOW THAT WE (the world) ARE OUTSMARTING THOSE THIEVES. Got it?
all this because there are no jail spaces and the store thief knows, ans, for crime is always the same but the political know this and still, not enough jails and not enough jail works.
You don’t have to make more jails. Just make the offense a capital crime. Yea, I know you lily types don’t believe in capital punishment. The way to seriously reduce this crime is to permanently eliminate the individual who commits it.
A really good way to protect yourself is to use a payment app on your phone such as Google Wallet, Apple Pay, etc. Using such payment method is two fold in security against card skimmers.
1. Your not placing a physical card into the attached skimmer device.
2. The payment app only transmits a portion of needed data to complete the transaction, not your whole bank/credit card number. Thus, even if the skimmer device were smart enough to capture the data, it wouldn’t have enough to make additional purchases.
@ Scott
Like speeding? Illegal lane changes? Jwalking? Public intoxication?
If you use Google Pay/Apple pay or tap pay, so you are sending a onetime code to pay vs scanning your card, are they still able to grab your card info?