Costco Credit Card Skimmer Found

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Alpha8472
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Re: Costco Credit Card Skimmer Found

Post by Alpha8472 »

The problem is that certain retailers were sued by disabled people saying that the pin pads were unreachable by people in wheelchairs. They could not use their pin without telling it to the cashier to type in.

I believe Walmart was sued in California for not having pin pads accessible by wheelchair users. Then Walmart was forced to be able to detach the pin pad and move the pin pad closer to the customer.

In the early 2000s, many pin pads were just screens with pens. There were no keypads with physical buttons. Then blind people sued and retailers returned to using pin pads with physical keypad buttons. Blind people need tactile buttons in order to type in their pins.
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Re: Costco Credit Card Skimmer Found

Post by mbz321 »

Employee here. Pin Pads are supposed to be checked at least twice a day on the Front End. I have noticed higher-level staff stepping up their checks at my location after the incident. I find it hard to believe a skimmer was undetected for so long..sounds like a location that really dropped the ball. And I thought having 'chipped' cards pretty much eliminated the whole skimmer thing. Besides EBT cards and prepaid gift cards, pretty much every card has a chip these days.
Alpha8472
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Re: Costco Credit Card Skimmer Found

Post by Alpha8472 »

The problem is that cards still have the magnetic stripe which can be skimmed. If cards were to get rid of the magnetic stripe, then the cards would not get skimmed.
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Re: Costco Credit Card Skimmer Found

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: November 19th, 2021, 4:55 pm The problem is that cards still have the magnetic stripe which can be skimmed. If cards were to get rid of the magnetic stripe, then the cards would not get skimmed.
I think we are just about to a point that they could just take the magnetic stripe off the cards. I am not sure how many other countries are still using the magnetic stripe. For these few merchants (mostly restaurants) who cannot figure out how to do a terminal upgrade, I guess they will need to figure it out.

With how prone to fraud the magnetic stripe is, there should be no customer facing equipment that records or processes the magnetic stripe. If the card has a magnetic stripe, it should be handed to the cashier and the cashier swipes it on the register.
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Re: Costco Credit Card Skimmer Found

Post by mjhale »

Alpha8472 wrote: November 19th, 2021, 4:55 pm The problem is that cards still have the magnetic stripe which can be skimmed. If cards were to get rid of the magnetic stripe, then the cards would not get skimmed.
Are the PIN pads not generally set to reject a chip card if it is swiped first before inserting the chip? Walmart and the grocery stores around me the terminal will tell you to insert the card if you try to swipe it first. This is repeated several times until an error comes up and either the cashier or the self checkout attendant has to intervene. I have noticed that 7-Eleven still allows you to swipe first especially on the PIN Pads in the former Sunoco locations they bought last year. Restaurants are still the wildcard as storewanderer said. Who knows what happens with your card while the server has it to process your check. Also those tableside terminals still most will not allow you to insert a chip card. Red Robin is the only one around me that upgraded their tableside terminals to accept chip cards or tap to pay.
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Re: Costco Credit Card Skimmer Found

Post by BillyGr »

Alpha8472 wrote: November 19th, 2021, 4:55 pm The problem is that cards still have the magnetic stripe which can be skimmed. If cards were to get rid of the magnetic stripe, then the cards would not get skimmed.
However, it does provide an extra option when the card won't work via the chip, rather than simply being stuck with no way to pay for your item(s).

Many of the machines will go to swipe once they try to read the chip 3 or so times and fail. While you could ask for a replacement if that happens with your card, that won't help immediately, where the alternate option allows you to finish your purchase.
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