skimming device found today

[Kickflip]

I might jack it.... but call the police.... never.

The will investigate you like crazy.
Trust me you will NOT be treated like the hero that stopped a crime from being committed.

What a bizarre thing to think. Why would the police investigate someone who called to report a credit card skimmer? Have you actually filed suspicious activity reports before? Normally the police don't even take your last name/phone number when you call to report something like that.

I have worked in many jobs that had me calling the police for many reasons, and I was never even questioned or contacted beyond my initial contact. One of the jobs I worked in, was customer service and people did call to report skimmers, and I would advise them to call the police and they said they already did and the police just said they will check it out and told the customer to call me.

I just couldn't in my mind imagine why the police would investigate the person REPORTING a skimmer. Again, I don't think you have personal experience with that, where as I have first hand experience, and have heard many second hand accounts of this EXACT situation, and the police don't have any reason to contact the person making the initial report.

I should also clarify, I dealt with Police in both the USA and Canada for these situations.

 

[shake707]

There's been a recent outbreak of skimmers being used in the Bay Area, just read about it. Might be fun to play around with, very serious consequences of getting caught with one though.. Pics please?

 

[kerex132]

If it is true you should probably throw it away if you dont want to get caught by yourself for doing fraud. I would say like the other ones, pics or it diden't happend.

 

[jazzc]

What a bizarre thing to think. Why would the police investigate someone who called to report a credit card skimmer?

I think it depends on the country. I would not call in where I am unless I really had to. People here have been beaten up badly for reporting very illegal activities to the police (e.g. drug production) - guess who leaks the reporter 's info to the criminal underground.

 

[Kickflip]

I think it depends on the country. I would not call in where I am unless I really had to. People here have been beaten up badly for reporting very illegal activities to the police (e.g. drug production) - guess who leaks the reporter 's info to the criminal underground.

I wouldn't doubt that. Even here in Canada we have the police leaking information to gangs. But as far as actual investigations for reporting a skimmer, it just wouldn't make sense. The person who takes the call in the USA/Canada is normally a simple dispatcher, who will just forward the information to an officer who will go to the location and check it out.

I have done it, I know people who have done it, we don't even need to give contact information when calling to report something like that, its a basic "anonymous" call because 95% of skimmer calls turn out to be no actual skimmer on the machine, and the customer was just overly concerned. You would not be needed to testify or give an official statement, because the police would have all the evidence they need.

Skimmers and drug production are much different. I just call, say "Hey, there is something that looks like a card skimmer on the atm, can you send someone to check it out? I just think it looks weird, don't have any specific info." and that is the entire phone call. Credit Card skimming rarely leads to any convictions or arrests, I doubt they even open an active investigation beyond looking at the security cameras.

 

[wrangler]

You really SHOULD call the cops. Otherwise you are a suspect yourself, and you'll be on camera too remember? And.. you used your card, so bank knows who you are. Take the chance to call the cops and explain, before you are treated as guilty and have to fight to explain you're not.

 

[Kickflip]

If this is legit, I would NEVER touch anything that looked like that.

But if it is true, then that is too late. You now have to look at your options:

1) You smash it, the police show up because they found evidence you were at the ATM messing around with it, things look awfully suspicious.

2) You call the police immediately to report it and say you need to make a report about something you found on an ATM, ask them to send an officer to your house to take a statement and pick up the device.

3) Turn it into the bank and tell them you just found it on there and didn't know if you should report to them or the police. They will make the police report, police will contact you for a statement. If being honest, you have no reason to be concerned.

What country do you live in?

 

[jazzc]

Skimmers and drug production are much different.

I agree. But personally I prefer to err in the side of caution. Sometimes you never know who 's behind.

Very recently, a plain extortion gang was exposed (lent money illegally with huge interest). Turns out that one of the heads of the criminal organization was...

• very close to an active parliament member whose party is part of the goverment
• his father used to be the regional head of state intelligence (the equivalent to fbi).
• One of his close relatives was heavily involved in what is probably the biggest financial scandal of the last to years in the country - in which, one of the big shots involved, had recently visited Russia and was greeted by Putin with "head of state" honors (and was put under arrest some time after he got back in the country)

You can never be too safe - but I 'm a bit paranoid on security too , especially given that it 's not trivial to make an anonymous call (all telephones are registered).

 

[albaniax]

If it is true..... play with it...
and clean it...

then throw that shit away. Never go to that bank again.

If the 3 idiots installing it were just peons working for someone with real balls....
The big guy is going to come get his machine... and break your legs for fukin with his money.

Interesting, in one way, you say SOPA is good and copyright should be taken serious.

Here you are suggesting the OP, to use it himself to steal money from regular workers, instead of big corporations.

 

[Kickflip]

I agree. But personally I prefer to err in the side of caution. Sometimes you never know who 's behind.

Very recently, a plain extortion gang was exposed (lent money illegally with huge interest). Turns out that one of the heads of the criminal organization was...

You can never be too safe - but I 'm a bit paranoid on security too , especially given that it 's not trivial to make an anonymous call (all telephones are registered).

I understand. In certain cases, I don't recommend calling them from your own home/cell phone, but still a payphone or something is still an idea. Like I say, in Canada, I wouldn't report some drug activity from my registered phone, because I know that it is tied to the gangs, and that information is leaked because it would lead to an arrest.

But from my experience, skimmers are actually not investigated to try to lead to an arrest, but they are just used as a warning to ATM users to be on their guard, and used to try to improve ATM security. Without direct ATM surveillance video, I don't see any way they would be able to go after the skim placer directly.

The only person who can get in trouble, is the person with the skimmer in their hands, and that's the OP.

 

[ShadeDream]

I am not sure if anyone has noticed this but there is a microSD card slot with an actual microSD card in it to the right of the picture. I therefore doubt that this uses a bluetooth connection. It most likely collects the details onto the card which can be then retrieved from a computer.

 

[jazzc]

It 's based on an Arduino chip -> diy kit

 

[ShadeDream]

It 's based on an Arduino chip -> diy kit

It's definitely a DIY. Information on the microSD socket can be found here:

http://elabguy.com/store/47

 

[BHopkins]

Call the FBI. That's what I'd do. This probably isn't the only one they made.

 

[wrangler]

But from my experience, skimmers are actually not investigated to try to lead to an arrest, but they are just used as a warning to ATM users to be on their guard, and used to try to improve ATM security. Without direct ATM surveillance video, I don't see any way they would be able to go after the skim placer directly.

Oh yes they are.

 

[Narrator]

How was this skimming the card numbers? Was it wired to the card reader on the machine?

My bank uses machines that actually take the card so I guess I wouldn't have to worry about these.

 

[wrangler]

How was this skimming the card numbers? Was it wired to the card reader on the machine?

My bank uses machines that actually take the card so I guess I wouldn't have to worry about these.

Yes you do. There's some pretty complex, low-profile ones out there fit right into the slots and skim them as they pass.

 

[Techxan]

Yes you do. There's some pretty complex, low-profile ones out there fit right into the slots and skim them as they pass.

Houston police found a few of them placed over the speed pass at local gas stations, they were about 1/4 In bigger than the pump card scanner sensor screen (kind of a flexible pad looking thing) did not interfere with the gas transaction, and were stuck in place with adhesive.

I saw a photo of one in place and it looked real.

Apparently they would be placed, then retrieved in an hour or so. I never heard if they caught anyone though.

 

[Kickflip]

Oh yes they are.

Not from my experience. I have spoken to several police officers on the phone about it, and they don't seem to care too much. They just asked me if I have surveillance cameras, then I said no, and they said ok bye. Like I said, I am speaking from my personal experience with the matter. Maybe the police who I spoke to were not the ones actively handling the cases, but to me they didn't seem like they planned to make any arrests or get any leads from the evidence they had.

And in a personal situation where my debit card apparently went through a store linked to a skimmer, and the bank shut my card down and issues a replacement, I called and spoke with an officer to ask what store it was and if the person was caught, and there answer was "it could have been anyone, we are just taking precautions" but wouldn't say what store it was. Maybe they are just downplaying it in order to keep the investigations private, but they acted very nonchalant about it.

I just don't see what they would reasonably do beyond:
Check the device itself for basic data or footprints left on the device.
Check surveillance cameras.
Have the bank security departments monitor use of the debit cards.

Maybe it differs between police departments and cities. But the experiences and news stories and press releases from police departments mostly tells me that they check the basics, then just warn customers to be on their guard, and anyone with more information should contact them.

My reasoning is this: A lot of police departments are operating on lower budgets, and most of their resources are tied up in drugs and violent crime policing. The banks cover the losses of pretty much every customer affected, so it isn't a high priority for them to find 1 skimmer. I could be wrong, but I just don't see it as possible.

I don't have any direct evidence, but my experience tells me, that the police themselves who drive out to the location to check on the skimmer don't really care.

 

[SilverSultan]

give it to me, I want to explore how it works, not to use it you but I wanna know how it works? does it use a scanner to get the credit number? I like to figure out how things work, look interesting though,