How Does Card Skimming Work?Īlthough card skimming techniques are becoming increasingly sophisticated, the methods are generally the same. (Have you heard of MagSpoof? Creator Samy Kamkar created his own homemade card skimming device and made the project open source.)Īfter your information has been recorded, it is usually then sold to other scammers on the black market or converted into a counterfeit card and used to make fraudulent purchases.īecause it is difficult to know when your card has been skimmed, you may not find out unless you review your financial statements or get a call from your card provider.

This type of fraud is known as card skimming and it involves swiping your debit or credit card through a card reader that has been illegitimately set up to record information from your card’s magnetic stripe. Nowadays, it is far more convenient to pay at gas stations with a speedpass, use Paypal for online purchases, and pay with plastic rather than holding wads of cash and pockets of loose change.īut instead of now worrying about being mugged for cash, there is a technique to defraud you of your money that is more anonymous, sophisticated, and dangerous - and all it takes is a device that can easily be purchased for $50 online.

Credit card slot machine scam