Watch this credit card skimmer attempt a heist in just three seconds

If you're a frequent credit card user, you're probably used to being wary of who you give your card number to, and may even watch some fidgety cashiers as they handle your plastic. 

But what you probably aren’t looking out for is the old three-second credit card skimmer move. But as a new video illustrates, it only takes a few seconds to pull off a major credit card heist if you aren't paying attention to your surroundings. 

Security cameras at a Miami Beach gas station recently caught a man in the act as he sidled up behind a customer being served by a cashier and quickly placed a credit card skimmer over the credit card payment terminal on the counter. 

The cashier and the customer (who paid cash) appear oblivious to the switch as the camera shows the scammer wandering off camera. The entire process only took about three seconds. 

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Skimmer devices are designed to illegally capture your credit card information by reading its magnetic strip and capturing your pin code. Scammers can later retrieve the skimmer device and pull the information to use your credit card information to clone your credit card and make unauthorized transactions.

Last year, U.S. banks began distributing new chip-and-PIN credit and debit cards in an attempt to improve credit card security and make this kind of fraud more difficult. However, scammers have already begun to use new "shimming" devices to defeat the security on chip-and-PIN credit and debit cards. 

After the Miami Beach skimmer was discovered on Thursday, the store alerted the local police, who are now searching for the man who placed the skimmer at the store. 

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