What is Bank Card Skimming?
(7:20 p.m. my lovely cellroom # 211)
Hello here is GokuRo and as you know I am in a federal prison in the USA. I have a sentence of 39 months, and there are 4 months left, as I am not a US citizen I do not have the right to parole and I do not have any benefit from the government .
Skimming is a global problem but the US is currently the most affected!
Europe has seen a lot of credit card fraud but since it was implemented EMV chip on credit cards and changed all the ATMs , the fraud almost gone,the only high frauds are online fraud.
Skimming as you know is the method of copying your credit card, but from year to year it has evolved from a simple ATM mask to something like a ,,sheet,,that goes into the atm and copies all the cards that go into the machine, and for PIN code a simple small videocam.
After a day of copying cards with a 100 usd computer, a 200 usd magnetic striper writer called MSR that you can find on Amazon you can end up making even more than 50,000 usd in one day.
Sounds simple doesn't it?
In reality, it's not that simple.
On Monday morning, GokuRo and KoKo reached the perfect atm to mount the skimming device , that they had found 3 days before. I carefully chose the type of bank an Credit Federal Union in downtown Philadelphia because big banks like Bank of America, City Bank, Wells Fargo etc have implemented chips and numbers are harder to open,
(numbers = bank accounts
open = pay)
but I want to specify that it is not impossible to open the accounts.
I will make a small parenthesis and I will tell you a secret: the Americans did not understand that in vain they put EMV chip as long as in America there are a lot of ATMs that have no chip, in conclusion the cards I steal from a bank with EMV chip I can withdraw money at an ATM without EMV chip and I will have a 70% chance to open the cards.
Returning to Monday morning, it was 5.00 am before opening the bank Koko goes to the ATM and with a card inserts the "sheet" in the device, above it sticks the video camera which is connected to a bluethoot headset battery,and with his card makes a test to make sure the sheet is securely sticked in the ATM.
Why did I choose a downtown area? I knew it was more dangerous but in this area in the ATM will insert the card around 1000 people.
It's 7.00 am and the bank opens. We are in the parking lot and watching the camera because sometimes people touch the video camera and fall as a result call the police and they come check the device and wait for us to come and take out the skimmer, in fact there are two ways the police can catch you :
When withdraw money from cards and when you take down the skimmer, later in other posts I will explain how the state and then the federal police investigation start.
It's 5.00 pm the bank closed and I go to get the skimmer, we get home ,I have a beer I turn on the computer I connect the ,, sheet ,, with USB and I start to download ,, numbers ,, then I check every BIN from the accounts to see what type of bank they are but as I put the ,,sheet ,,on Credit UNION most of the cards have the BIN at this bank. We check BIN because we need to know if there is another bank so as not to block the card when withdrawing money.
Some cards for example: I put the card in ATM and withdraw 500 usd and the card has a limit of 300 I can block the account and I can no longer use it, as a clone will not have the same life as an original one, that's why we know the limit at each bank:
BOA - 250/1000
Wells -300
City-300/800
FirstBank-600 etc,
it's not a rule but most of the time these are! So I downloaded all the numbers and now I connect the camera and download the video and the hardest work here comes, I have to synchronize from the first card to the last one on the camera to find the PIN.
In a pack with 300 cards sometimes 10% are incorrect pin, 30% are insufficient funds and 10% do not open. Sometimes the person who writes the pin covers the keyboard with his hand thinking that no one can see what he is writing. I'll tell you something, we only need to see the direction of the finger and we realize what the pin is so this won't help much and in the next posts I will give you some useful tips for that. I have everything ready, I am preparing the MSR (the device that transfers information on a magnetic tape, the bank accounts). I wrote all the cards on Wallgreens and CVS gift cards, then I stick a small paper with the pin code on the cards and I mix the 300 cards (to be the equal chances of luck) Koko chose the pack of 150 cards and we go to sleep it was already 2am and tomorrow is a long day.
It's 9 in the morning, Koko wakes me up with a coffee, I take a cigarette and we talk about the route. Each skimmer has a route, for example we divide ATMs into 5-6 routes so it is harder for the police to track us down. Today we go on the route through the city, it's 10:30 am and we are stuck in traffic in the middle of Philadelphia, we stop at a Bank of America (we took the cards from Credit Federal Union and they are cards without EMV chip so they open on any kind of ATM) Koko stays in the car, I take 10 cards and I go to the ATM and I try to withdraw 600 usd (limit to Credit Federal Union) after I write the amount on the screen I hear how the device starts counting the money TRRR TRRR TRRR , I tell you honestly it is the most beautiful moment and my heart starts beating fast because of emotions, in my mind it was ,, the cards are going well ,,.
I go back to the car with 4500 USD and 10 cards already finished, all of them had paid less 3 which were insufficient funds but I put them aside because I didn't try below 200 USD and I usually keep these cards and try them at the end . Koko was not so lucky as me he came to the car with 1500 USD. I'll tell you something, do you know why scandals occur in a team? for something like that ... when the teammate comes to the car with a smaller amount than yours, the other one thinks that he didn't declared all the money!
Why ? because in the end the teams collect the money and make a percentage of all the money that has been made! It was 9 in the evening and we had finished the 300 cards, we had made around 80,000 USD and with a great hunger because I didn't have time to eat and I ask Koko ... What do you think bro was worth risking my life to come to the US when I crossed Rio Bravo with a boat and the time I spent in Mexico in the most dangerous area controlled by the Golf cartel?
Yes, you heard right, I risked my life to cross the Rio Bravo in a boat for 3 people but with 12 people on board and I payed 20,000 USD only for the crossing.
In the following posts I will continue my story do not forget I am still in a federal prison and accessing the phone is a risk for my good time. Thank you for reading and appreciate if you Tip me !!
Nice article