Amateurs
Here in Deepest South Flori-duh, we have _professionals_.
Step 1: a gentleman shows up at an ATM machine inside a premesis such as a drug store (Walgreens, CVS, I’m looking at _you_) or on the wall outside a supermarket or similar (Publix, Winn-Dixie, that’s _you_) and fiddles around with a debit card. Then goes to the manager of the establishment and says that there seems to be something wrong with the ATM. Manager says that it’s not his problem, it’s the bank’s (Chase, Wells-Fargo, that’s _you_) problem.
Step 2: the manager gets a phone call from, allegedly, the bank or whatever which owns the ATM. The call asks if anyone has reported a problem with the ATM. The manager, of course, says yes. The voice on the call says that they’ll send techs around to fix the issue, and asks the manager to be on the lookout for John Smith (or, as this _is_ Deepest South Flori-duh, Juan Diaz) with [bank] IT ID #12345678. And to call 305-555-SCAM when the tech arrives.
Step 3: Someone with a [bank] IT ID reading 12345678 shows up, asks the manager to call the office. ‘Tech’ opens up the ATM, fiddles around, tells manager that it’s fixed. Note: the ‘tech’ does NOT take out any cash. Nor does he swap out the hard drive, that’s alarmed.
Step 4: John Public uses the ATM. And the scanner installed inside it records the card info, complete with PIN, etc., and beams it back to the mothership.
Step 5: our heroes make copies of all the cards over a week or so and then roam wild for perhaps 24 hours before destroying the copies.
Step 6: do it again at a different ATM.
‘Jackpotting’ makes it obvious that that particular ATM is hacked. If you do it this way, you can milk many, many, MANY ATMs over a long period of time before the cops work out which ones are trapped, and by that time you’ve moved on to other machines. You don’t make as much at one time as with ‘jackpotting’, but you make a lot more over time. Slow and steady wins the race, boyz.
I just love Deepest South Flori-duh. I really do.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
