The adoption of chip-and-PIN technology for payment cards is starting to happen in North America, in the name of improving security for consumers, merchants, and card issuers themselves. Unfortunately, this is also forcing bad guys to innovate, as evidenced by a new type of “shimmer” ATM found in Mexico.
Shimmer is a type of money-splitting device that acts as an intermediary piece between the card chip and the reader chip at the ATM – recording the chip's data as it is read by the ATM.
“We are starting to see card skimmers re-emerging because the physical card has become more valuable now,” said Ricardo Villadiego, founder and CEO of Easy Solutions. “We are also seeing criminals using other more sophisticated techniques to extort money and other frauds, beyond chip-and-PIN card fraud .”
Some of these include new readers equipped with a GSM module that sends encrypted card data over cellular networks. They use tiny cameras installed above ATM keypads or somewhere in the bank lobby to obtain PIN codes. They also use fake numeric keypads, which can be purchased for less than $120 on the black market. These automatically obtain the PIN without any effort on the part of the criminal.
And the fraud doesn't stop there: Criminals are now also using SMS to take money from ATMs in large quantities through malicious programs, while in restaurants, criminals are using electronic soldering tools to replace the card chip with a phone SIM card, while the waiter proceeds with your payment.
