Beware, Chip and Pin

[Enak]

At 0126 this morning £300.00 was withdrawn from the ATM machine at Abbey National, Kilburn High Road, London, NW6 7HS.

I was asleep at this time so how should I know this? Well, the money was withdrawn from my account using what I can only assume was a cloned card.

Beware, chip and pin only gives thieves more access to your money. Every transaction you make with your chip and pin card requires your pin number to authorise. The system is no more secure and furthermore, only speeds the process with which your money can be taken.

Think hard next time you take out your flexible friend... I may cost you more than you expect.

Kane
(Now very skint)

[Tjalfe]

does the bank not cover this, or are you stuck with the bill for the fraud?

[Enak]

Apparently it will be refunded pending investigation... However I am now stuck with only £40 cash until it is sorted.

[ZokesPro]

Card cloning. Yeah, I had a nasty/nice surprise 6months ago when my account was completely frozen after I made a financial transaction with a company that had been reported for card cloning. Pain in the ass to have your account frozen but nice to know they offer protection plus they asked me to verify all the latest transactions to be sure I hadn,t lost any money.

[schmosef]

Enak, you should write up your experience and send it to http://www.consumerist.com/. They've been running articles about just your situation recently and I'm sure they'd be interested in your story.

[GNEP]

Apparently Shell are having some "issues" with chip and pin in their UK company operated (non-franchise) sites, and have reverted to old-fashioned signing. Not sure of more details but it sounds like a particular terminal supplier is somehow involved... and it's a co-ordinated fraud AFAIK, not random dodginess.

[VJ]

There was a original criminal group here some years ago.

First, a machine (like those at the petrol station, where you pay via credit card) was stolen.
(no one found it suspcious, and thought it was vandalism)
Later, it turns out that for many people, money was withdrawn from their account, in Spain! They could easily prove they weren't in Spain and still had their cards.

So, what happened?
The guys stole the machine, designed and made a module that fits inside this machine, put this module inside a different machine at a petrol station. Their module transmits the magnetic strip (was back in those days) and the pin code wirelessly to a computer closeby. They then send this information to associates in Spain who made fake cards, and witdrew money.

And how were they cought?
Police found out that all the victims had that petrol station in common, so they surveilled it. And yes, one of the criminals suddenly came to work on that machine and was arrested: they wanted to remove their module and move to a different petrol station to avoid it becoming obvious...

(tell me: how can a gang that creates such a small device make such a stupid mistake?)


Jörg