Viral Video: Hackers Place Credit Card Skimmer under Three Seconds

By Charmaine Montes, Christian Post Contributor Friday, March 18, 2016

Police officers are encouraging everyone to be vigilant at all times as crimes can happen as fast as snap of a finger just like what recently happened at a gas station convenient store. According to a report by Ubergizmo, a group of men were able to successfully install a credit card skimmer on top of a card terminal in less than three seconds.

Fortunately, though the deed was done very quickly and without the knowledge of the store attendant, everything was captured on camera. The raw footage of the incident was released online by Miami Beach Police and it showed how the thieves implemented the scheme.

As detailed in The Hacker News, the incident captured in the video happened at the gas station situated at Chevron at 1453 Alton Road. Around 9:30 p.m., two men entered the gas station store pretending to be customers. One was in charge of distracting the store clerk by buying some items and asking for other items from nearby shelves. The accomplice on the other hand was the one who grabbed the skimming device from his bag and while the clerk was away, he quickly placed it on top of the payment card terminal. Afterwards, the two left the store as if nothing happened.

Apparently, the store clerk had no idea what just happened. If the skimming device had been left unnoticed, it would have taken credit card details of customers who will swipe on it. Once the card is swiped, the skimmer will record and store the details which will then be used by the hackers later on by cloning credit and debit cards of the victims or using it make online purchases. They will either return to get the skimmer back or use a Bluetooth device to obtain the collected data.

HNGN said that someone was able to notice the incident but the hackers were already gone by that time. The Miami Beach Police have released the video in the hope of identifying the culprits. It's also posted for awareness and to be more careful especially when making transactions that involve credit or debit card.