Skimming

Skimming is copying payment card numbers and personal identification numbers (PIN) and using them to make counterfeit cards, siphon money from bank accounts and make fraudulent purchases. Criminals install equipment at merchant locations, on point-of-sale (POS) devices, automated teller machines (ATM), and kiosks that captures the information from the magnetic stripe.

Handheld skimmers used by corrupt staff are very small, fitting in the palm of a hand. Despite their size, these devices can store a significant amount of cardholder data.

Skimming devices hidden within the payment terminal are invisible, and neither the merchant staff nor the cardholder will know that a card was skimmed.

The estimated global annual cost of skimming is two billion dollars, and so the protection of physical devices that interact directly with a payment card is very important.