In the US there has been an issue with people altering things like the ATM machines, credit card readers, and gas gas pumps to steal your credit card or debit card info by by replacing the keypad and the part of the machine where you insert your card. Has something similar ever happened in Germany? Here’s an example of what im referring to https://youtu.be/ACnetQDJkpw?si=4sL9EcNu_Yjr6ev_
by BoxLongjumping1067
18 comments
Yes. I know somebody to whom it happened.
It happened to me once.
Yes – Sadly it’s become more common over the years – seems to happen quite often on third party ATM machines. Officially the numbers are still “relatively” low though. I’ve had my card skimmed, but the bank noticed immediately and closed the card.
Theft happens everywhere in the world, this means you generally should be careful when using your card to withdraw cash. That being said skimming is rare.
My question to you is why are you worried at all? You can pay directly with ApplePay/Card almost everywhere nowadays.
It happens. Not a bigger problem as in the US, right now the biggest problems is the ATM explosions to steal the money.
In some countries, with more advance banking services, you can use the bank app to get a withdrawal, you do it on the app and on the ATM only insert a one time code and that’s it.
Nooo… Germans prefer cash 🤣
Cash is King!
Yep. Happened to me a few years ago at a train station
Yes, that used to be a problem. Not that relevant anymore, as the magnetic stripe is hardly used nowadays (and a chip cannot be copied with a skimming device).
It feels like it has become less, at least you don’t hear a lot about it in the news anymore. I guess security measures and increased awareness have helped.
But I remember some years ago when quite professional criminals would sneak into supermarkets at night, replace all the electronic payment devices and steal an entire day in customer data which I must say I found rather impressive.
Occasionally.
That’s why I always prefer contactless.
I very rarely use cash. If I do need something, I always send my assistants to a bank counter. I travel around the world for business around 300 days a year, and I always need cash now and then. Thankfully there are still enough branch banks. My credit card also allows me to get cash at the counters of various banks around the world. If my details were known through illegal reading of the card data, it would be an immense effort for me and my company to set everything up again. Kind regards.
You always check readers you put your cars into or up to or enter your pin. Though, so far, I’ve never encountered a skim device myself.
Skimmers are a problem everywhere there are card readers and ATMs.
It may be a bit less of a problem in Germany, but I don’t have the figures. In Germany, cash is still very common, and although card payments have long been an everyday thing, they didn’t really take off until contactless systems had already been established. (People have constructed devices that can read contactless cards at a distance and take money that way, since contactless payments of up to €50 don’t need a PIN, but AFAIK this hasn’t been exploited by criminals, at least not in a big way.)
Most ATMs are inside bank lobbies: when the bank is closed you have access to the lobby (you may have to swipe a card to open the doors) so skimmers have been fitted to these ATMs, but since these places are of course monitored by security cameras that’s a high risk for the criminals. I’ve now seen ATMs that work contactless, so that solves that problem.
Gas pumps aren’t an issue at all: having to insert a card just to pump gas is a very North American thing. Here in the Old World, you usually just pump the gas and then walk into the little shop to pay. You’d think that would result in a lot of people just not paying, but in fact that’s extremely rare: most people are honest. Fuel stations spare themselves the cost of having to maintain a terminal on every pump, and instead force customers to walk into a shop where they can be enticed to make impulse purchases.
I’ve always been careful and never found any. Never heard of anyone who had any problem either…
In the USA, my card already got duplicated once during a 2week trip.
Never saw one myself, but I heard this happens here and there.
Yes. Modern ATMs have countermeasures against this. For example cameras that look for modifications. It’s still a problem though.
I remember about 15 years ago many banks installed anti skimming card slots on their ATMs, often green plastic ones. The only problem was: people had kept hearing about card skimming on the news that when the ATM suddenly had a weird new card slot they thought it had been tempered with.
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