CLONE CARD SKIMMING

Card cloning is a type of fraud in which information on a card used for a transaction is covertly and illegally duplicated. Basically, it’s a process thieves use to copy the information on a transaction card without stealing the physical card itself. 

This information is then copied onto a new or reformatted card, allowing criminals to use it to make fraudulent purchases or gain unauthorized access to a person’s accounts.

The most widespread version is credit card cloning, though debit card cloning is also common. Any type of card that can be used to authorize a payment or account access – even a gift card – could be a target for card cloning.

The most common form of card cloning is known as “skimming” and generally works like this:

1. Criminals install a “skimmer” – a credit card cloning machine that secretly reads and copies card information – in an ATM or point-of-sale terminal.
2. A customer’s card is fed through the card reader on the ATM or POS device (to facilitate the transaction) and the skimmer (to copy the card’s information).
3. The criminals retrieve the information copied by the skimmer.
4. The criminals can then use the stolen information as-is to commit fraud, copy it to a fabricated or stolen card (i.e. card cloning), and/or sell it on the black market.