Clone cards, also known as cloned credit or debit cards, are unauthorized copies of original payment cards created by criminals through a process called card cloning or skimming. This type of fraud involves covertly and illegally duplicating the information on a card used for a transaction without stealing the physical card itself. The most common form of card cloning is known as skimming, which typically works as follows:
- Criminals install a skimmer, a credit card cloning machine, that secretly reads and copies card information, in an ATM or point-of-sale (POS) terminal.
- A customers 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).
- The criminals retrieve the information copied by the skimmer.
Once the card's unique information is captured, it can be copied onto a blank card or overwritten onto another stolen card, creating a clone card that can be used for direct purchases, cash advances, or buying money orders. Clone cards can be part of cooperative, sophisticated operations, where one individual sells data collected from a skimmer to someone with a card-cloning machine, while another party uses the cloned cards for fraudulent activities.
To protect against card cloning and other types of credit card fraud, individuals can take the following precautions:
- Use a credit card with a microchip.
- Make sure your credit card includes a tiny chip that encrypts the information transmitted during a transaction, making it more difficult for criminals to clone the card.
