LiveLeak has great footage of an ATM skimmer being installed in Brazil, as well as the police arrest that followed. Note - LiveLeak itself may be not safe for some work environments due to adult ads.
The first few seconds are a quick lesson in how easily these skimmers can be attached.
Lets Japan points out that a Japanese bank has begun to deploy cellphone jammers near their ATMs to prevent skimming attempts that are increasingly using SMS messages from a cellular phone equipped reader device to phone home.
According to Lets Japan, "Chiba Bank installed phone signal-jamming devices at 4 unmanned ATMs at bank branches in the Tokyo metropolitan area Dec. 10. It is the first use of the device in a financial institution in Japan."
This isn't likely to occur legitimately in the US due to the Communications Act - the FCC rule can be seen here, and notes that, "Fines for a first offense can range as high as $11,000 for each violation or imprisonment for up to one year, and the device used may also be seized and forfeited to the U.S. government."
ZDNet has details on a $8500 ATM card skimming device that does automatic SMS notification when it captures data. Interestingly, the system also provides greater security for the person running it, preventing data capture and code based exploits. The article is worth a read if you're interested in the state of the art in skimming attacks.
