Scammers putting glue into ATM machines?
ATMs have been a major target of criminals for as long as they’ve been around.
It’s no surprise that publicly available cash dispensers are going to draw criminal interest, as there are thousands of ATM theft victims each year.
However, not all ATM thefts are the result of a physical robbery and many people don’t even discover funds have been stolen out of their account until it’s too late.
While fraud protection on ATMs has improved in recent years, scammers are always looking for new ways to exploit these machines.
Take card skimming for instance—criminals have been stealing credit and debit card info at ATM machines via various skimming methods for the better half of two decades now. Even with the introduction of the chip and more recently the “tap-to-pay” method, almost 250k cards were reported to have their information collected from skimming in 2022.
Now within the past month, scammers have found a new unique way to take advantage of ATMs, and it involves the use of… glue?
That’s right, thousands of dollars are being stolen directly out of victim’s bank accounts and all the criminals had to do was take a trip to the local crafts store.
But how exactly are they doing it?
What’s happening to the victims?
From what victims have reported, this scam sounds like it’s taking place at busy ATMs in populated areas. However, this scam could technically happen at any one of these machines.
It starts off when an individual looking to make a withdrawal attempts to insert their card into the ATM card reader.
The individual soon finds that they are unable to fully insert their card into the reader and is therefore unable to access their bank account.
This individual, who has people waiting behind them, starts to get flustered and maybe even tells the person behind them “it’s not letting me insert my card”.
The person behind them sees they’re struggling with the card reader and suggests “oh don’t worry, you can just tap your card”.
The individual will then tap their card against the scanner, gain access to their account, make their withdrawal, and leave as if nothing happened.
Later, when this individual checks the balance of their account, they will find hundreds of dollars missing from a transaction they didn’t make.
How the scam works
Victims of this scam were left outraged and confused by the missing funds in their bank accounts. This was until one person caught the criminals performing the scam and reported the attack to their local news station.
It turns out that the nice person in line who suggested the victim tap their card against the scanner is actually the criminal. These scammers are taking advantage of human error and an odd loophole in tap-to-pay technology.
By putting glue into the card reader, they are forcing individuals to use the tap-to-pay method.
When a potential victim approaches the machine, they get behind them like they’re also waiting to use the ATM. Criminals see the victim struggling to use the card reader, so they suggest using tap-to-pay instead.
Normally when a person uses an ATM, they insert their card to begin the withdrawal and take it out when they’re finished. However, since you don’t have to remove your card when using tap-to-pay, people are simply assuming the transaction is finished after getting their withdrawal and walking away.
After they walk away, the criminal has complete access to the funds in the person’s account.
A victim’s lack of experience using the tap-to-pay feature, the criminals creating a sense of urgency by appearing in line behind them, and an overlooked security feature in the tap-to-pay technology all result in this scam working perfectly for criminals.
How can you protect yourself?
Thankfully, this scam isn’t extremely common, but there are still a few things you can do to ensure safe and secure transactions while at the ATM.
1. Make sure your transactions are completely finished before walking away
This should go without saying anytime you use a debit or credit card in any publicly available machine such as: gas station pumps, ATMs, self-checkout machines, parking meters—anything that has a card reader.
In this situation, the victim simply had to confirm that they closed out of the transaction menu to prevent the scammers from taking advantage of anything.
2. Always check your surroundings before using an ATM
This may sound obvious, but this tip applies to several different situations when using an ATM. If you notice someone waiting by an ATM that gets in line just as you go to use it, it should raise red flags.
Shoulder-surfing is also another popular technique used to obtain your pin or account number. The person next to you or near you may appear to be waiting in line, but they could be watching you type your credentials into the machine.
3. Don’t ignore any abnormalities
If the card reader is jammed on an ATM, or any card reader for that matter, it should definitely raise suspicion. If a machine looks like it’s been sabotaged, or perhaps a skimmer has been placed over the device, your best bet is to go find another place to make your transaction.
All in all, because these incidents are rare, it shouldn’t deter you from using an ATM, or tap-to-pay either. The purpose of this letter is to shed some light on the importance of being overly paranoid about scammers, especially in situations where you’re withdrawing cash in a public setting. Unfortunately, we live in a world where it pays to be cautious in situations like this.
