Australia has been labelled a key target for ATM skimming and hacking at the National Identity Crime Symposium in Brisbane.

Most Australian bank cards are more vulnerable because they use magnetic strips rather than micro chips.

Dani Luck reports.

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TRANSCRIPT

It can happen as easily as making an ATM transaction and it does.

Stealing more than just money from your account.

Brian Hay, Detective Superintendent Qld Police: “They’re taking the identity information of that person and what we’re seeing is that crooks are now realising the value of identity information.”

Thieves fit skimming devices like this to machines and capture PINs and copy personal information from magnetic strips.

But chip-card technology on credit and debit cards has seen ATM skimming fraud drop around the world.

Colin Dyson, Detective Superintendent Commander of NSW Police Fraud Squad: “Certainly the experiences where chip and pin is implemented this type of offence is reduced to almost zero.”

But not in Australia.

There are currently no ATM’S that are chip enabled and police say it’s up to the banks to act.

Colin Dyson, Detective Superintendent Commander of NSW Police Fraud Squad: “We expect that chip and pin to be rolled out sooner rather than later it should have been rolled out by now.”

And now ATM’s are targets for hackers.

A convention in Las Vegas showed a machine can be infected with a virus to do this.

Police say you should be aware of any unusual devices when using an ATM or EFTPOS machine, and not to use the machine if it looks suspicious.

Dani Luck, QUT News.