How is a bank card skimmed? So so!
People queuing at an ATM in Nakhon Ratchasima noticed that two men were withdrawing a lot of money. And when they dropped a few bank cards, they got suspicious and called 191. This put an end to a practice that has been in the news again in recent weeks: skimming bank cards.
That is actually strange, because skimming has been going on for a long time and since the beginning of this year 70 to 80 million baht has been taken from bank accounts. The arrest in Nakhon Ratchasima will also have little effect, because the two Russians are little boys and the gang they worked for is elsewhere.
In the past two weeks, 43 customers who had withdrawn from an ATM in front of 7-Eleven in All Seasons on Witthayu Road were lost. Their bank account was looted in Ukraine. Last week the ATM of the TMB in CP Tower 3 in Phaya Thai received an unwanted visit. The loot consisted of 700.000 baht, taken in Surat Thani, believed to be by a Malaysian gang. And 78 customers who had pinned at the ATM of the Bangkok Bank in front of the Apollo building on Witthayu Road, boarded the ship for 1,3 million baht. Ukraine again.
How do those guys do that? There are two ways: a camera, stuck to the top of the ATM in the same color or on the side in a box with advertising material, watches when the PIN is entered, and a reader in the card opening reads the magnetic strip on the bank card. As customers began to hold their own, a second, much more advanced method has now come into vogue: a fake keyboard that is glued to the keyboard and a fake keyhole.
Anyone who pays close attention can see that. The keyboard is thicker than usual; the fitting opening is not recessed into the machine, but hangs in front of it, and is sometimes even loose. The accompanying photos speak volumes.
The ski gangs no longer collect the money themselves. They make counterfeit cards and sell them for 3.000 baht each. Usually 30 to 50 at a time, because not all of them function (anymore). The money is contacted or online purchases are made with it.
For bank cards with a chip instead of a magnetic strip, the gentlemen (and ladies?) skimmers will have to come up with something else, because according to the banks, the code cannot be cracked. The Bank of Thailand has therefore advised banks to only issue bank cards with a chip. That operation should be completed by 2015.
The Bangkok Bank already started using them in 2008, but the cards are not yet very popular because they can only be used at their own bank. The other banks are not there yet. In the meantime, customers are advised to change their PIN every month and to avoid suspicious machines.
(Source: Spectrum, Bangkok Post, Nov. 24, 2013)
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a question about this article. I read that a card with a chip is safe because of this. skimming. My rabo pass has a chip and a magnetic strip. Which one is now used in Thailand?
@ dirk As stated in the posting, the Bangkok Bank is the only bank where money can be withdrawn with a chip card, but I do not know whether this applies to all ATMs of the bank. I thought not. Ask the bank itself.
In Thailand, just like in most other countries outside Europe, the magnetic strip will be used. That is why you also have to adjust your profile at the Dutch banks if you go on holiday outside Europe. It has also been decided to limit the height of the recordings outside Europe. As a result of these measures, claims due to skimming in the Netherlands have been reduced by 80%
Just this. A few years ago, the chip on the EC (bank card) was introduced on TV in Germany with much fanfare as the egg of Columbus in terms of card security. Immediately after the TV broadcast ended, members of the Hamburg Computer Chaos Club demonstrated how they had -broken- this rock solid unbreakable system within 30 Minutes. That was laughter
In the bits and bytes world there is a golden rule: ; the system devised by a human brain can be rendered inoperative by another brain, which is slightly smarter. And these smart brains exist, very often in criminals.
This also applies, for example, to the -encryption- of your WiFi system at home. You have WPA2?. That can be broken in an hour. And how ?. I'm not going to tell you that, but Google a bit on this theme. You will be amazed at what you read.
You can be careful enough when pinning. I hope you stay injury free.
Coming back to this theme: it is also the reason that banks pay you your damage. They know that their system is not watertight at all. But the damage to the banks is still smaller if you employ thousands of people who pay you your money at the Counter for 24 hours.
great martin
Don't use a card from Belgium anymore, but have money transferred from my Belgian bank every month
costs me for 1640 Euro 11,32 Euro extra comes about every month 68000 bath Thai bill I now
use is also never a lot of money in the current month, just after paying the house rent, electricity and electricity
water pocket money for my wife. If they skim that is a thai card from Kasikorn they will be there
can't do much with it though. Is a debit card and cannot be collected under 0.
According to the bank, almost no Thai bank cards are skimmed, so not much to earn? Whether that is really true, I do not know. You can also have it notified by text message for every transaction above a certain amount
amount then if you do not give permission the transaction will be aborted or that works I don't know?
I find withdrawing money far too complicated. What you should and should not do if it is only about 20.000 Baht and your PIN code to enter, is incomprehensible. So I walk into the bank and ask if someone from the staff wants to help me. Well, and it's always there, helping me. He (or she) neatly looks the other way when I type in my code, and that's it. Can I still be skimmed in this state of affairs?
@ Willem van Doorn @ topmartin Willem: The chance that an ATM inside a bank building has been tampered with seems almost nil to me. So no. Martin: Whether a chip card can be copied is irrelevant in this context. A thief must be able to work quickly and invisibly. Burglary protection, for example, has no other purpose than to slow down. The chip card is so well encrypted that it takes far too long to break the code. And then there will also have to be equipment to copy the data from the card. Conclusion: a chip card provides much better protection against skimming than a card with a magnetic stripe.
They should give those guys 6 years right away.
The ATM where I pay is not located inside the bank building, but attached to the building.