Not really related to mobile phones, granted, but most of the bits inside these rather dodgy skimming devices use the tech from modern smartphones. This one, which was found near to Sainsbury’s at Manchester Piccadilly station, was really hard to spot. The devices, which usually include a separate scanner in front of the card slot to read your details, also need your PIN. Fraudsters will come along later to detach then devices and then go shopping with your money.
In the past the PIN got grabbed via a camera stuck onto the top of the machine, but now they’re becoming so small and so thin that they can place them in front of the PIN entry keypad. Notice how slim the card skimmer is too.
Luckily the British Transport Police spotted this unit during a busy Saturday. After being removed these images were released to the Manchester Evening News.
As you can see on this image, the pinhole camera is really tiny and hardly noticeable. It’s powered by a smartphone battery and matches the design of the cashpoint perfectly, meaning that most people simply don’t notice it.
The best advice is to basically pop your hand over the keypad while you’re entering the details, so that a camera or another person simply can’t see it.
