Friends, in today’s modern era, digital banking and ATM transactions have become an important part of everyday life, but along with these facilities, cyber criminals are finding new ways to target unknown users. A new fraud method named ‘ATM thermal scanning scam’ has increased the concern of security experts. Using thermal imaging technology, fraudsters try to detect the ATM PIN entered by customers by detecting the heat left on the keypad button, let us know its complete details.

What is ATM thermal scanning?

Thermal scanning is a technology that detects heat patterns on an ATM keypad. When users enter their PIN, their fingertips leave a brief heat signature on the buttons they press.

Fraudsters equipped with thermal cameras or special scanning devices can analyze these heat signatures to determine which buttons were most recently pressed. Although the exact PIN may not be immediately visible, this information can help criminals determine possible PIN combinations.

How does this scam work?

Criminals usually act within moments of a customer completing an ATM transaction.

Process:

The user enters his PIN and completes the transaction.

Heat marks remain on the keypad for a while.

Fraudsters use thermal cameras to capture these heat patterns.

The hottest button is usually the one that was pressed most recently, while the less hot button may be the one that was pressed first.

By analyzing the sequence and intensity of heat signatures, criminals try to guess the PIN.

For example, if the numbers 3, 4, 7, and 8 were pressed, the fraudster may try different combinations of those numbers to figure out the PIN.

Plastic vs Metal Keypad: Which is Safer?

How effective thermal scanning will be depends largely on the type of ATM keypad.

plastic keypad

Retains heat for a long time.

Fingerprints and heat marks are easy to detect.

Are more vulnerable to thermal scanning attacks.

metal keypad

Removes heat quickly.

Cools down quickly after use.

Making thermal analysis quite difficult.

For this reason, security experts consider metal keypads to be more secure against thermal scanning attempts.

How to protect yourself from ATM thermal scanning scams

The risk of becoming a victim can be significantly reduced by taking some simple precautions.