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WSJ: Skimming Fraud Gets More Sophisticated

Posted on Mar 8, 2007 by Tom Fragala

The Wall Street Journal has a story on skimming devices on point-of-sale systems like the fraud scheme which happened at the Stop & Shop stores recently. The article highlights the weaknesses at the POS at retail locations. Another reminder to watch out. Of course, easier said than done. Sometimes the fraudsters replace the devices with their own, so how could the public possibly know the difference? Check your statements often, so you can catch fraudulent transactions sooner, and limit your losses.

In the Stop & Shop case, police say that late at night -- after shopping crowds had thinned and the staff was whittled to a skeletal crew -- four young men entered several stores in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, distracted employees and replaced several card-swiping machines with devices that looked similar. The thieves' systems, however, housed mini circuit boards that recorded customers' data and PINs.

A few days later, the suspects retrieved the systems. Counterfeit debit cards were quickly made using the collected financial data and disseminated, along with the related PINs, on the black market. Within days, more than $100,000 was withdrawn from ATMs as far away as California.