Been to your ATM lately?

There's a new scam going around that can catch you out easily.

It involves two pieces of technology, installed by thieves at an ATM machine. This is already happening in Brazil, and Texas police are now on the look-out for it. (The picture is from Brazil, but if you can't see it just click on the Texas police link -- they have some grainier versions.)

The first piece is called a "skimmer." What looks like a card reader cover is actually a separate reader, and a radio. The radio transmits your card number to thieves parked near the machine.

The second piece, pictured to the right, looks like a cover for the plastic envelope or deposit slip holder that you often find next to ATMs. It's actually a tiny camera, which is taking pictures of your fingers entering your PIN on the keypad.

The thieves get your card number from the skimmer, get your PIN from the camera, then make their own card and can go anywhere on your ATM network, emptying your bank account.

There are ways to deal with this:

• A cheap plastic cover, installed over the keypad, will let you enter your PIN but will prevent prying eyes (or cameras) from seeing you do it. This also keeps the guy behind you in line from grabbing your PIN.
  
• Regular inspections of machines, especially on weekends, accompanied by sweeps of the street for parked cars with people in them. These cars can then be searched for the receiving radios, and a case can be made.
  
• You need to be on the look-out when you go to your ATM. Check to see if anything has changed on your machine. Look up and down the street, just as you look around you before using a card.
  
• We must demand that banks pay the small amount of money needed for the covers. Threaten to take your business elsewhere if they don't.
  

Class dismissed. As Sgt. Philip Esterhaus (the late Michael Conrad, lower-left on the linked picture) said on "Hill Street Blues," be careful out there.