I've been seeing signs on store entrances and at the checkouts that there is currently a national coin shortage.
This is happening because more people are paying by card.

Yesterday my son was telling me his father in law had money disappear from his debit card account after using a Walmart self-checkout. Someone slipped a card reader skimmer over the self-checkout card interface and stole his account right from his card.

His bank covered it because Walmart (after being notified) checked and found the card reader skimmer faceplate. He still needed to close the account and get a new one. Luckily, it was not his main account.



What gets me is how someone could place a card reader skimmer in Walmart with all those cameras covering everything?
Its gotta be an inside job.

So now I've started carrying change for $2 in coin and change for $20 in small bills. I'm also starting to really look at the card readers I am about to use.

Has anyone else experienced skimming?
Know someone who has?
How common is this?

Holy crap.

Exactly what I said!

I guess this has been around for quite some time but with the pandemic and people short on money it has more immediate significance.

Umm, can you SEE an attached card reader??

Over here that's nothing new. This began to occur years ago. I've personally never seen it nor experienced it. But I don't often get money out of an ATM anyway.

But there are even scan devices that can be used to get your bank data when they simply walk by you. Then they can empty your account.
There's small (hip) bags to stick your cards in that prevents that.

I haven't got bank app installed on my phone either. I think over 50% of people do these days, especially younger ones. You can send small amounts, like to a friend when they've paid for your coffee, without even logging in I believe. It's called "tikkie" or translated "li'l slap".
It's quite common these days for people to say "I'll send you a li'l slap".
But I do my banking on my PC. Sod all that mobile crap.

I have no banking info on my phone (well, their phone numbers but that's it).
I use a debit card from two different banks.
My main account is checks only, no debit/no credit.

I've known about card skimmers for a few years but this is the first time someone I actually know has been swindled by one and it hits close to home because I use the same Walmart.

I also have security limits set on my cards that require a call from me with a password to unlock more than $500 at a time. I also never keep more than $1k in my debit account at one time.


When I searched for the pictures I posted there were pic of different skimmers and what they look like.







How to spot and avoid credit card skimmers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-c9IU11KmY

Yes, my card got skimmed. So now I use checks or cash. I don't cards at Walmart or anywhere out. I just use a lot of hand sanitizer inside stores, etc.

I have a ton of change because I never think to brink it to the bank and cash it in.

Most people don't know what to look for and get skimmed that way.

I have 14 canvas bags of change I keep. One for each grandchild.
I even go to banks and get half dollar pieces and silver dollar pieces to add to the bags.
I also have at least 1 $2 bill in each bag.

I could trade them in for folding money but that isn't the point.
I want them to sit and count out the coins.
I put lil trinkets in there too.

Lately, I haven't been doing many cash purchases so they're not filling up as fast as they were but my oldest is only early teen so there is time.

I been using my cards or paper checks lately.
Aside from paying bills I only go shopping about 2 or 3 times a month.

Cheques went obsolete in most of Europe around the end 90s. As such I haven't seen one in decades. It'd be an antique item almost.

They are still used in the United States.

I hand deliver all but one check to pay my bills.
Our electric payment office closed locally.
I can still drive 40 miles to pay in person if I want (I do sometimes) but mostly I just mail that in because paying by card charges me a $4 fee and paying at the grocery store or another authorized agent locally charges me $3.
I'm really not into paying more for my electric than I already do.

Plus, I can mail a check to my kids if they need some money.

If I buy another truck I'll pay by check (anything over $500).

Not many people still use paper checks anymore.
I see a lot of people using their phones to pay now.
Hell, I barely use my phone to talk to people let alone as a wallet.

Here in the states its a national coin shortage.
Is there coin shortage in other countries too?
Is it a recent thing (pandemic related) or has it been an issue for awhile?

I have security on my phone, but I don't want to use to pay my bills.

- I have not heard of coin shortage here. I think maybe it's an American thing. You also had other shortages, food, TP etc, we didn't and don't have that either.
People still pay cash here as well, although more common is to use your bankcard.
If there's shortage of cash in shops they go to the bank to get more.
I have been told that they're busy to make money obsolete, and that that has started in the US already. Maybe this is part of that scheme. All to do with control, knowing what you do etc. and introducing a bitcoin like system.
I didn't believe it when i was told, I don't do conspiracy BS, but if you have national shortage of cash it sounds like it could be true after all.

- Using your bankcard to pay doesn't cost anything extra here, and never did. Not when it was first introduced either.

- If I want to pay my kids money I just transfer money to their account. It's in their account within minutes.

It happens to far more people than anyone realizes.

You can download tor and go exploring the "dark web."
When silk road was active you could find sellers offering thousands and thousands of credit card numbers (dumps) for cheap. Like 10 cents per number.

Just because they steal a number, it doesn't mean they actually use it.
They could have skimmed your number, but just aggregated it with a bunch of others, then sold them all on the dark web to someone who just never got around to cloning a card with your number, or they were caught before they could, or they cloned what they needed then resold the list to someone else.


Common enough to be a problem.
There's a reason why there are chips in most credit cards now, why ATMS stop working when a little sensor is covered, why they put tamper seals on pay at the pump terminals at gas stations, there's a reason why the terminals, at most retailers anymore, are where you can do it yourself rather than having to hand your card to the cashier and they swipe it behind the counter.

That used to be one way people skimmed. They were employees at gas station and retail stores. You'd hand them your card, and they'd swipe it out of view of you below the counter, sometimes where they had a laptop or computer hooked up.

Another major contributor to stolen card numbers is restaurant servers. You know when they bring you your bill and you just give them your card and they disappear into the back of the restaurant? They can just swipe that card through something attached to their phone or a memory device, take down your cvv code.
There are quite a few people who specifically take jobs as servers for the purpose of stealing credit card and cvv numbers.



Walmart isn't all that concerned about people stealing your card numbers.
Walmart cares about people stealing from walmart.
A couple of years ago there was a big story about a group of guys from detroit using cloned credit cards to buy gift cards, stealing millions from walmart.

Skimmer devices can be small and attached in a couple of seconds using what appears to be normal movement, where your body is shielding the terminal.
Think of how many people go through walmart, how many movements at any given time, and then think that walmart has some of the cheapest security money can buy. They let a lot of theft go just because it's too expensive to pursue.
There's a reason why some walmarts have a perpetual police presence. Let the taxpayer fund it!


It's kind of a new cold war.
Scammers figure out how to do things like steal credit card information via skimming or hacking, companies come up with new security to stop it, criminals figure new ways to get around the new security, and on and on.
They have ways of "skimming" the info from the chip in your card now.
Not even things like Apple pay are safe from fraud.


What gets me is seeing people still using checks. Which have almost no protection from fraud.
Even with all the skimmers and such out there? Checks have less fraud protection than credit cards. They have your name, address, bank account, and routing number on them. It's crazy that people still use checks.

Oh yeah, and old school?
Before skimmers people would steal credit card numbers by simply looking at them.
Say you go to the store and you're standing in line waiting impatiently. You've got your stuff on the conveyor belt, you've got your CC out, holding it on top of your wallet with your thumb, ready for a quick checkout, the person behind you is staring at your credit card memorizing the number.

Also, you have a leather wallet? Scammers would find people with fat wallets, or fat people, because pressure on the wallet would leave an imprint of the credit card number. So they'd get behind those people in line and look for the number imprint on leather wallets, memorize the number.

There's a reason why the CVV number came about.

And there was the whole carbon copy imprint era, where people basically took a an exact copy of your credit card.

No coin shortage where I live.

I pay cash for everything.

Cash is king for me always.

We have our very own pretty world class card reader on Mingle2