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I'm always terribly suspicious of ATMs--especially those off-brand ones that pop up in random establishments that don't take debit cards nowadays. I understand
by tiffani 17y ago
I'm always terribly suspicious of ATMs--especially those off-brand ones that pop up in random establishments that don't take debit cards nowadays. I understand some businesses just don't want to pay the fees behind accepting debit cards, but I'm increasingly becoming of the ilk where if you don't accept debit/credit I'm not shopping with you. Sure, you have folks that will handle your card and still do nefarious things with it, but at least you're not walking up to a machine prone to this kind of thing.
And for the first skimmer, I'd be suspicious of why they had to put a diagram to show you how to use what should be a universally understood sort of thing now. Slot? Card. The others, no, I wouldn't have caught those. :\
- aarongough 17y agoThe 'diagram' was a plastic plaque designed to contain/hide the electronics responsible for storing the skimmed data.
- tiffani 17y agoI know. But, anyone should be suspicious of why that's even needed.
- ciniglio 17y agoI think a slot for a credit/debit card isn't terribly intuitive, especially if the reader only accepts one orientation of the magnetic stripe, in which case a diagram is almost necessary. There are readers that have asymmetric widths on the entry mechanism (strangely worded, but looks like [1]). This is an extremely subtle hint regarding the orientation (magnetic stripe goes with the wider part), that I would imagine the majority of people don't pick up on. You might also look at this article [2] to see that legitimate ATMs do offer diagrams indicating the proper orientation of a magnetic stripe card. [1] http://consumerist.com/images/31/2009/04/041909-008-shell-legit-card-slot-2.png http://consumerist.com/images/31/2009/04/041909-008-shell-le... [2] http://consumerist.com/2009/04/heres-what-a-card-skimmer-looks-like-on-an-atm.html http://consumerist.com/2009/04/heres-what-a-card-skimmer-loo...
- nickpleis 17y agoYou mean the same diagram used on virtually every gas station pump I've ever used?
- pavel_lishin 17y ago> I'd be suspicious of why they had to put a diagram to show you how to use what should be a universally understood sort of thing now. Clearly you've never seen someone in a self-checkout aisle trying oh so hard to scan their discount card through the magnetic reader when the video on the POS is telling you to swipe it. Or vice versa. There will always be someone too dumb to use something.