Photo by volcanojw.

All Life is Local points us to reports of an ATM skimming operation at a SunTrust machine located at 3440 Wisconsin Avenue NW in Cathedral Heights. It serves as a good reminder that, yes, these things actually do happen in the D.C. region:

Last week I was the victim of an ATM card skimming scam, and I thought others could benefit from what I learned. Basically, I used my ATM card at the SunTrust Bank in Cleveland Park (the one a block or so from the police station), and someone had equipped it with a card skimmer. They were able to clone my card and get my pin code and then steal money out of my account…Thinking back, I seem to recall that when I first put my card in, it didn’t take, and I had to put it through again. But I didn’t think anything of it at the time. The bank refunded me the money, but it’s been a hassle for sure.

Another person added a post on the Cleveland Park listserv, complaining of having money stolen out of their account after using the ATM.

Obviously, any reputable bank will have no problem reversing any withdrawal that was made on the back of a skimming operation. In fact, several banks will actually proactively tip you off that your PIN or card have been compromised. But a skimming theft is usually a real pain to rectify, requiring phone calls to your financial institution, lengthy verification your identity, getting a new card issued and sent to you and so forth. This editor has been the victim of a skimmer before, and while it certainly wasn’t the end of the world, it was rather annoying.

So how can you tell that an ATM is funky? Well, it’s not exactly a cut and dry process, but this PDF is still a pretty good primer on how to know when something is off with the card reader at any given ATM. Does it look like there has been a deck of cards-sized device fastened to the normal card reader? Has the ATM’s brochure/letter holder look like it may have been jimmied open? (Skimmers often use these places to hide cameras to record the PINs of their victims.) Does something just generally look like its been fiddled with? All could be signs that an ATM may have been tampered with — so if there’s another one close by, it might be worth relocating to save yourself the hassle.