Fergie's Tech Blog

ATMs may be an easy target for phishers

Bob Sullivan writes on MSNBC:

It's supposed to be impossible. Criminals aren't supposed to be able to print their own ATM cards and withdraw funds from your bank accounts at cash machines.

But a new report from the research firm Gartner Inc. says many banks are skipping an important security check, which makes it easier for criminals to forge ATM cards and walk off with thousands of dollars at a time.

Researcher Avivah Litan, author of the Gartner report, says one bank told her it had lost $1 million a month to such fraud. She said that payment processors have told her that up to half of all banks don't check to see if the ATM card used to withdraw money is really the ATM card they gave the consumer.

posted by Fergie @ 8/02/2005 05:35:00 AM