Beware of Interac PIN-Pads

As more people make the move to electronic forms of payment, buyer beware! Well not really, just be careful with using your debt (interac) bank card. Recently my little sister was a victim of such a electronic theft.

It has been happening more often it seems and for it to happen to someone close to me it can be a bit nerve racking. My sister (Katie) told me that when she looked at her bank balance there was a strange deposit of $1800.00 when she went to withdraw money from an ATM. When she went to go withdraw the amount she wanted, she was denied saying that there were insufficient funds in her account. She knew how much her account had in it since she tracks it pretty well. When the ATM spat out the receipt it showed that her balance was $1824.00 but balance available was $0.00. She was curious what happened to her money.

She came over to my place and we checked it out. Someone deposited $1800.00 via ATM deposit into her account and 20 minutes later they withdrew her previous remaining balance. They were only able to withdraw $20. Don’t get too upset she only had about $25 in there as she keeps all her other money in a separate account that her debt card cannot access.

How did this happen?
What most likely happened is that while shopping at a retailer in a mall somewhere the thief at one point made a switch of one of those interact machines that you use to pay for your goods. They look similar to the regular ones, but the inner electronics have been switched and have a logging mechanism installed. When you goto swipe your card they record your account number and if it’s smart enough, the pin and account you entered as well. Also make note that someone could of been behind my sister looking over while she entered her pin number.

Later the thief would come back to the store and swap the interact pin-pad out for the original one or another ‘fake’ one. They then use the numbers stored in the pin-pad to create fake debt cards.

I’m suspecting that the thief deposited an empty deposit envelope saying it was $1800, hoping that an ATM deposit in my sisters account was instant. Some people’s account can be set up this way, her’s is not.

In the incident with my sister, VanCity knows who removed the money from the account and where they did it from. What will follow, my sister was never told. They issued her a new bank card and corrected her account.

What can you do to prevent this?

• Ensure no one is watching you enter your PIN while making a transaction.
• Check to make sure that the pin-pad you’re using doesn’t look weird. most of us have been using them for sometime. If you’re unsure, go withdraw cash from a nearby ATM instead.
• Check your balances regularly to make sure your money is in check and you recognize withdraws and debts.
• Don’t use easy PIN numbers. I know people who use 1234 etc… Don’t!