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I guess the bottom line is crooks go to where the money is at.
And in this case there is gold in them checkout machines in
supermarkets and department stores.
Data thieves target checkouts By Byron Acohido USA Today Tue Nov 6, 2012 9:48 PM SEATTLE -- Brash criminals out to steal personal data are tampering with checkout machines in department stores, supermarkets, gas stations and even doctors’ offices. Their target: debit card account numbers and PINs. Thieves use ruses such as posing as repairmen to install skimmers and storage devices that capture account numbers from the magnetic strip on a card and the PIN a customer keys in to the payment terminal. “Technology is making it easier for criminals to develop smaller, more effective skimming devices,” said Dale Dabbs, CEO of identity theft protection service EZShield. The compromised checkout machines are so widely dispersed that many crimes go unnoticed and public reports are sporadic, said Jeff Hall, director of Technology Risk Management Services at consultancy McGladrey. Barnes & Noble recently disclosed that thieves got away with installing corrupted checkout terminals in 63 bookstores in nine states. The company has not said how many customers were affected. |