ATM scam

[Alan Burkitt-Gray]

	Quentin Campbell <Q.G.Campbell@newcastle.ac.uk> writes
	>
	>I understand that there has been a spate of similar thefts of card
info
	>recently by tampering with the ATM in such a way that card details
and PIN
	>can be recorded remotely. Does anyone have any further information
on the
	>technique(s) used?  Are ATMs in bank lobbies less vulnerable?=20



My wife's personal experience from yesterday, at a legit bank machine
(installed in a railway station) in south-east London: She took out =
=A350. The
printed slip which emerged immediately afterwards showed =A3100. The =
person
next in the queue got a slip showing someone else's balance. The =
machine
then closed down. My wife complained to our bank manager (at the =
nearest
branch, about a mile away): the machine was reprinting skips from old
transactions, he said, and the slip she'd been issued referred to =
someone
else's account - he pointed out the abbreviated account number on the =
slip,
showing that it was another account, and confirmed on the bank's =
computer
system that the right deduction had been made.=20

He called the printing of other people's slips a "backing up process".
Curious way of backing up your data, I'd have thought: spilling it out =
onto
a railway station. Obvious security (indeed, data protection) worries =
here
which others are better qualified to shout about.

The bank manager was, he said, getting three or four complaints a day =
about
this machine - the busiest in the area. The bank aimed for its machines =
to
be working 95% of the time. This one struggled to make 90% - though =
that's a
separate concern from security worries. That's just bloody =
inconvenience.

(And, in case any bank people are reading this, I expect it is a clear
contravention of the Data Protection Act to try to match up my name at =
the
foot of this e-mail with any accounts you might hold to try to identify =
the
bank and the manager in question - so watch it!)=20

Nevertheless, if Quentin wants to follow up, he should get in touch
separately.


-
ALAN BURKITT-GRAY, Editor, Government Computing
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for the people who are going to make it happen
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