It’s a lot easier than you might think for the Ruskies to start vacuuming funds from your account after they steal the account number and PIN codes from Office Max.

All you need is a $100 reader and a $1500-$2000 encoder. You can buy a reader and the necessary software at Staples. The encoders can be had on eBay.

The Red Tape Chronicles writes,
For demonstration purposes, the Deignan brothers took my debit card, dropped it in an encoder, copied the data from the back, and handed the card back to me. Then they took a piece of white plastic, a second card, inserted that into the encoder, and essentially pasted my ATM information onto the second card. The process took less than 15 seconds.

Within moments, the was able to withdraw $100 from his bank account using one of these manufactured white cards.

We just changed our PIN code this weekend. The Washington Mutual bank officer asked if our new ATM card had arrived yet. We said no, we hadn’t requested a new card. Peering a little skeptically, the officer asked why we wanted to change our PIN. We said, “I just want to.”

A few moments later at the bank’s encoder and we were lock and load. Unfortunately the bank was closing, otherwise we would
ve stuck around and quizzed them on what they knew about the debit card hacks and what they were going to do about it.

We’ve also been using our debit card as a credit card in order to avoid punching our PIN code in and having it possibly get stolen. Sometimes it takes a few extra steps. Often the clerks automatically set it up to enter the PIN and we’ve just had to ask, can you please ring this up as a credit card? It’s worth the hassle. If you haven’t changed your PIN yet, do so now.

Because, as Digg member incognegro wrote,
In Soviet Russia, the debit card scams you!

Previously: ATM Scam UPDATE: Crooks Caught!

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