Two men from Ukraine have been arrested in Macau, China, for participating in an ATM skimming scam and stealing approximately $100,000 from at least seven ATMs.
According to police, the two men used a special device to physically insert malware into the machines, which recorded users' card details. This device was connected to a small laptop, and the criminals inserted it into the machines through the ATM card slot.
Local media reports that inserting the special circuit caused the ATM software to crash, temporarily leaving the cash machine with a black, blank screen. The thieves then removed the device. After a while, the machine would restart and record the PINs of customers using the affected systems.
The thieves would return a few days later to collect the stolen data. To do this, the thieves would reinsert the specialized device to recover the stolen data, and then a separate chip card to destroy evidence of the malware.
You can see photos of the device in question, but it is still unclear how exactly it worked.
