To protect your bank funds, watch for thieves' sleeve in ATM slots

Brief
March 6, 2003

Next time you use an automatic teller machine (ATM), run your finger along the card slot before inserting your card.

That's the advice from Jack Cusack, security manager, who warns of a recent scam by thieves reported to him via the Public Health Sciences Division.

The scam works this way: A thief slips a thin, clear, rigid plastic "sleeve" into an ATM card slot and waits nearby for a customer to try to use it. The customer inserts a card, but, because of the sleeve, the ATM cannot read the card's magnetic strip, so the machine keeps asking for a personal identification number to be entered.

As the customer re-enters the number repeatedly, the thief watches and memorizes it. Frustrated, the customer assumes the machine has captured the card and walks away. The thief removes the sleeve, complete with card, and uses the card to empty the customer's account.

To avoid this scam, run your finger along the slot before you insert a card. The sleeve a thief uses has tiny prongs that enable the sleeve to be removed, so if a sleeve has been inserted, you will be able to feel the prongs and remove it, foiling the theft.

Cusack urges faculty and staff to pass this information along to friends and family.

[Center News will run alerts from Fred Hutchinson security, as requested. If you have information that would make a good security alert, contact Jack Cusack, 206-667-5656, jcusack@fhcrc.org.]

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