SKINT skimmer

Wired have a good article on credit card skimming (read here). It is less prevalent in Ireland because unlike in the United States, the industry has added a chip as well as the mag stripe (the black strip on the back) to debit and credit cards. It is much harder to crack and so far there hasn't been any wholesale skimming of chipped cards, although techies have already demonstrated that 'Chip and PIN' can be hacked. That explains why ATM skimming attacks have almost died off in Ireland, while still on the increase elsewhere. One reader of Fakes, Frauds and Scams told me this week that their penniless student off-spring had their newly issued card skimmed in Dublin. Fortunately the thief didn't get any money because the student didn't have any and only used the ATM to change the PIN. The bank called the student within five minutes to tell her that the card had been skimmed and the card had been cancelled. The ATM in question in Dun Laoghaire is close to a ferry port so it's possible some bottom-feeder of the underworld had just arrived in the country unaware that Irish issued cards are chip and PIN and therefore much, much harder to clone. and was stuck for cash.