Eli5 How do atm skimmers work?
In: 22
To add to the other comments: they don’t, at least not in the EU (unless you have a tourist with an unsecure card, so I guess if you’re an American in Europe, you should probably watch out).
The information you can skim off the magnetic strip is only useful for cardholder not present transactions, and is insufficient for that purpose. There must be additional checks beyond simple card details to process a cardholder not present transactions.
Cardholder not present transactions still account for the vast bulk of card fraud, but it’s from avenues such as malware and social engineering rather than ATM skimming.
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