John Bock - USA » Real Scams Part 2 Web Blog

September 2010

11/9/2006

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Life !!!

— jon @ 2:30 am

4. The Wi-Fi hack
The con: Hackers hide out in wi-fi hotspots (cafes, airports, stations) and re-beam the signals from their own equipment into hi-jacked laptops.

How it works: Using a laptop and a transmitter the size of a pack of cigarettes, they can set up their own wireless network in a public place. If the unwary log on, their credit card details can be stolen, as well as other sensitive information stored on their computers.

5. Cashpoint fraud
The con: In the UK, a fraudulent bankcard transaction takes place every seven seconds. Gangs of cashpoint fraudsters have been targeting ATM machines all over the UK and Europe to get our card information and PINs.

How it works: A magnetic reading device and a video camera is fitted to an ordinary cashpoint. When the victim uses the machine the thieves steal the magnetic strip information from their card and get a video record of the PIN.

They then produce a new cashpoint card using a blank such as a pre-pay mobile phone top-up card. They wait until five to midnight and withdraw the maximum daily amount, then at five past midnight they take out the next day’s limit as well.

New Chip & Pin technology is helping to safeguard against this, but teams of fraudsters can still take the information off British cards, clone them and pass them on to teams who use foreign cashpoints to clean out accounts.

Police and banks advise the public to never put their card into a machine which looks like it has been tampered with, and to always shield their PIN.