You check your bank account and find money gone — withdrawn at an ATM or spent at a checkout terminal. You never made the transaction, never gave out your card, never gave out your PIN. But when you reported it, the bank said: “Our records show the PIN was entered. That means it had to be you.”
Sounds airtight, right? Wrong.
The Ugly Truth Banks Don’t Like to Admit
When a bank claims, “The PIN was entered, so it must have been you,” it sounds convincing. But criminals have been stealing debit card data and PINs at both ATMs and retail checkout lanes for years.
They use devices called “skimmers” or “shimmers” to steal card data, plus cameras or fake keypads to capture PINs. Sometimes they infect the terminals themselves with malware. The result? A cloned card + your PIN = a criminal draining your account while you’re somewhere else.
Banks know this. Law enforcement knows this. The FDIC has been warning consumers for years. So when your bank shrugs and says “PIN entered, case closed,” they’re ignoring what everyone in the fraud world already knows.
Proof Points: How ATM & POS Fraud Really Works
Banks say “PIN used = must be you.” The facts say otherwise. Here’s how fraudsters actually do it — and where you can read it for yourself:
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Skimming + Hidden Cameras
Devices attached to ATMs and POS terminals capture your card data, while pinhole cameras record your PIN.
👉 U.S. Secret Service – Skimming Overview -
Deep-Insert Skimmers
Razor-thin devices shoved inside card slots at ATMs and even self-checkout kiosks, invisible from outside.
👉 Cook Solutions Group – Deep Insert Skimming -
Fake Keypad Overlays
Bogus PIN pads layered over the real one at gas pumps, grocery checkouts, and ATMs, recording every keystroke.
👉 FDIC – Beware of ATM Skimming -
Card Cloning with Your PIN
Once crooks have your data and PIN, they encode it onto counterfeit cards and spend freely.
👉 Secret Service – Financial Investigations -
POS Malware & ATM Vulnerabilities
Hackers have exploited unpatched software in both ATMs and retail POS terminals to bypass security.
👉 WIRED – ATM Software Flaws -
Real Criminal Cases
Prosecutors have busted fraud rings that installed skimmers and captured PINs at both ATMs and stores.
👉 Secret Service – Skimming Arrests
But Here’s the Catch
If you’re going to fight your bank, you’d better be telling the truth.
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You’ll need proof of where you were when the withdrawal happened. Receipts, witnesses, travel records — something solid.
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Lying in a lawsuit is lying under oath. It’s no different than lying to police. Get caught, and you’re the one facing criminal charges.
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ATM and store cameras don’t lie. Banks don’t always retrieve footage unless litigation starts. If your face is on that tape, the truth will come out.
🚔 So, if you’re fibbing, don’t call me!
But If You’re the Real Victim…
You are not crazy. Just because the PIN was used does not mean it had to be you. Fraudsters have gotten incredibly sophisticated, and banks are all too happy to assume guilt instead of admitting their ATMs, store terminals, or systems got compromised.
And under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, it’s the bank’s job to prove a withdrawal was authorized — not your job to prove it wasn’t.
The Bottom Line
If your bank brushed you off with “the PIN was used, so case closed,” you may have a real claim. We know how this fraud happens, and we know that the banks know it too.
👉 Call me. We’ll make them hand over the evidence, dig up the footage, and force the truth out — at no cost to you unless we win.
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