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In response to a series of ATM robberies over the holidays, Citibank has drastically reduced the daily amounts its customers may withdrawal from ATMs. In some cases, customers of Citibank could once withdrawal as much as $2000 per day, depending upon the account. The new limits are around $500 per day for most customers.

Citibank attributes the action to reports of "skimming," the process of copying someone's ATM card and passcode or PIN, over the holidays. In one scenario, criminals may have mounted a false ATM reader in front of the genuine reader and later retrieved the false panel and its data. To get the PIN number required for ATM withdrawals, a digital camera may have been mounted above the keypad. The physical card data could then be transferred to empty or old mag stripe cards, such as expired hotel room keys. Criminals then could withdraw up to the daily limit on a card until its account was exhausted.

Citibank says it has reimbursed customers whose accounts were tampered with.

John Shepherd-Barron, father of the automated teller machine

(Credit: BBC)

Forty years ago this week, life changed. There's been plenty of hoopla over the 40th anniversary of the "Summer of Love" and the Beatles appearing on American TV, but this event even affects life on Antarctica: the birth of the ATM. Yes, there's an ATM for researchers down at McMurdo Sound.

Before the first ATM was installed by Barclay's Bank near London in 1967, there was a lot of standing in line and writing of checks, though there were probably a lot fewer $20 bills in the United States back then.

More than $25 billion will be withdrawn from bank accounts around the world today from 1.5 million of the ubiquitous dispensers. In keeping with our status as the most indebted nation in history, we Americans have more than a quarter of the world's ATMs.

Despite some security threats and occasional hacks, there seems to be no worry that ATMs will continue to be the teller of choice for most consumers. And for the record, when you're visiting its birthplace, the United Kingdom, don't ask for the nearest ATM. They're called "cash machines."

(Credit: MagnePrint)

The way the particles land on a given credit card's magnetic stripe are as unique as individual snowflakes or human fingerprints--or so says a Magtek, the company that developed, MagnePrint, which records the unique magnetic media signature for all credit and debit cards scanned through its readers. The first scan by a MagnePrint reader creates a template against which all subsequent scans are compared.

MagnePrint is designed to prevent "skimming." Online carders buy credit-card information from a black-market database, then copy that information onto a blank physical card using a machine that costs about $250. The skimmed card is then used in an ATM or a retail environment, as though it were the original card, until the credit or debit limits are maxed.

Using MagnePrint, faux cards are identified quickly. Even if you were to rerecord the magnetic stripe information onto your credit card a second time (say you damaged your first card and seek a replacement), the magnetic particles on the second card would not match the original and would be flagged. The results are given in percentages, with around 80% considered to be enough of a match. The bank always has the ability to accept or deny the recommendations.