As the Christmas shopping season goes into full swing, cyber criminals are upping efforts to steal your hard earned cash. Most people have heard the horror stories of devices called card skimmers being placed on ATM card slots. These devices scan the magnetic strip on your card while tiny cameras capture your finger movements as you enter your pin.  The majority of you have been educated enough to not use ATMs that have large plastic thingy’s sitting over the  card slot.

However, the latest card skimmers are so thin they are inserted inside the card slot and are impossible to detect.  Check out this video.

How do you protect yourself from such ingenious technology? Simple, cover the pin pad as you enter your pin number. The information that a skimmer scans from your card is useless without the pin. If you cover the pin pad, the criminals camera is unable to record your pin regardless of where it is placed.

Want to reduce your chances of encountering skimmers at all? Only use ATMs that are physically installed in a bank, they are harder to hack. Also, try and avoid using ATMs on weekends. Thieves tend to install these devices on a Friday when they know the bank won’t be open for a while.

Technology is every changing and so are the criminals methods. As careful as we may be, a breach may still happen. Reduce the damage by keeping an eye on your bank statements and disputing any unauthorized charges immediately.

Happy Shopping!!