ATM skimming: Karachi police arrest Chinese national

KARACHI: Police on Sunday arrested a Chinese national for his alleged involvement in an automated teller machine (ATM) skimming fraud from Karachi’s Tipu Sultan Road.

According to the police, an ATM skimming device and Rs0.65million were recovered from the possession of the suspect, identified as Shu Shuping.

Three accomplices of the suspect managed to escape, added the police.

On January 11, Karachi Police arrested two Chinese nationals who were allegedly involved in an ATM skimming fraud.

The manager of the bank registered the case against the foreigners after citizens took hold of the suspects and handed them over to police.

Police moved the suspects to the Artillery Maidan Police Station for the investigation.

WHAT IS ATM SKIMMING?

ATM skimming is like identity theft for debit cards: Thieves use hidden electronics to steal the personal information stored on the card and record the PIN number to access all the cash in an individual’s account.

That’s why skimming takes two separate components to work. The first part is the skimmer itself, a card reader placed over the ATM’s real card slot. When an individual slides his/her card into the ATM, he/she is unwittingly sliding it through the counterfeit reader, which scans and stores all the information on the magnetic strip.

Another technique employed in this crime is the use of a hidden camera, which records your PIN code and conveys it to fraudsters.

A few ATM skimmers also change the entire display of the ATM.