A YouTube video posted online showed just how easy it is for thieves to get your debit and credit card information by simply creating a replica Automated Teller Machine (ATM) skimmer to go over the original one.
Benjamin Tedesco, a senior technical services consultant at Carbon Black in Washington, D.C., was vacationing in Vienna, Austria with his family on June 19 when he decided to take out some money from an ATM near St. Stephen’s Cathedral.
“I always do a courtesy check…I didn’t think anything was going to happen,” Tedesco told Global News in a phone interview.
In Tedesco’s video, he showed that his “courtesy check” consists of gently pulling on ATM card readers to make sure they’re safe to use.
That’s when Tedesco said he noticed the glue on the machine.
In the video posted online, Tedesco showed the custom-made card reader in his hands.
“I was kind of freaked out actually when I found the skimmer. I never really thought I’d find one,” he said. “It didn’t look like someone did this in their basement.”
Tedesco said on a first-glance visual inspection, it looked like the card reader could have been mass produced because of its quality.
Global News has not confirmed that information.
“It had a battery, switch, controller board. It tells me that it is a disposable skimmer. Meaning they probably have a whole batch of these they can slap on an ATM and take off,” Tedesco continued.
According to Interac.ca, the number of frauds due to skimming from debit cards fell in 2015 by 40 per cent from the year previously to $11.8 million dollars. That’s $4.4 million less than in 2014.
The website also noted that since the introduction of chip and pin technology, most fraud losses occur internationally and not within Canada.
Interac.ca’s numbers are based on the financial institutions’ losses and not that of Canadian cardholders.
Nonetheless, for Tedesco he said in his video it “pays to be paranoid.” He even stopped a woman from using the ATM beside him.
He then goes on to explain to the stranger his own recent discovery.
Tedesco’s message to everyone?
“I really hope people start paying attention. As cool as it is [that the video] went viral, I hope it helps to protect people,” he said. “Be aware of your surroundings.”
Tedesco also had advice for corporations.
“I really hope banks and gas stations – any sort of retail company – start incorporating into their daily practices the checking of their ATM, or any machine, at least daily. Ideally every hour someone should go out and physically and visually inspect,” he said.
Tedesco said the card reader was the only one he found while in Vienna.
He also said he reported what he found to the Vienna police department.
You can read more about the ATM skimmer Tedesco found here.