ATM skimmers have become an unfortunate part of life for many credit unions, but another threat is now hitting CUs as well: illicit EMV card readers called “shimmers.”

A shimmer, when inserted into the mouth of an ATM card-acceptance slot, sits between a card’s EMV chip and the ATM’s chip reader, allowing criminals to read the chip and steal card information. They are a generation ahead of skimmers, which steal information from mag stripes rather than EMV chips.

Though shimmers are relatively young members of the crime world — reports of them began circulating widely in late 2015 — credit unions haven’t been able to avoid their wrath, according to Ashley McAlpine, who is a fraud prevention manager at CO-OP Financial Services. McAlpine said she’s aware of around 10 to 20 credit unions that have been hit with shimmers, and the incidents often result in, among other things, card reissuances — something many credit unions were hoping to get away from with the advent of EMV chips.

 

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