New Card Skimmer Used in Successful Attacks in US

June 21, 2022
Card Scam

As a certified NCR partner, Case Financial has been notified of recent card skimming attacks on ATMs in the US.

We want to ensure our clients are aware to help protect their financial institutions from such potential attacks. Please read the complete notice below and contact Case Financial with any questions by emailing info@CaseFi.com or completing the Contact Us form at the bottom of this page.

New guidance and recommendations from NCR

NCR has been made aware of several successful skimming attacks in North America. These attacks originated on the West Coast of the United States and have now also been reported in other US cities and in Canada.

The skimming technique is using a new type of Ultra-Thin Deep Insert Skimmer in motorized card readers. This skimmer can successfully operate inside the NCR Motorized Tamper Resistant Card Reader. The presence of the skimmer will significantly increase the probability of causing a card jam, but there is a reasonable likelihood that some cards can be successfully skimmed before a jam may occur if at all.

Note: Deep Insert Skimmers cannot be detected or prevented by fascia skimming prevention solutions such as NCR SPS or third-party equivalents. Customers are advised to be aware of possible signs of deep insert skimming. The most common indicator is a card jam; other indicators are card reading failures.

Skimming attacks also require the PIN, and the most common method of PIN capture is use of a covert camera hidden on the ATM. PIN cameras are typically hidden behind fake panels added to the ATM fascia. Common locations on NCR 80 Series ATMs are side panels in the PIN Pad recess, or complete ATM side panels. Fake panels that conceal a camera will have a small pin hole aperture to allow the camera to view the PIN pad. Any small holes observed in the vicinity of the PIN pad should be considered suspicious.

Additional hardware upgrade countermeasures for Ultra-Thin Deep Insert Skimmers are in development by NCR. A mechanical inhibitor is scheduled for release in by March 2022, and an internal skimmer detection upgrade is scheduled for the end of Q2.

Card issuers can limit the impact of skimming by increasing the security checks on any magnetic stripe transaction authorization that originates from a chip card in an ATM. All North American ATMs are chip enabled, meaning that every chip card withdrawal should be processed as an EMV transaction. Any chip card transaction from an ATM which is processed using the magnetic stripe is a possible skimmed card.