Crooks employ various methods to commit ATM fraud. Of course, there's the brute-force scenario: The criminal attaches a chain to the machine, drags it down the street behind a truck, finds an out-of-the-way spot, and opens the safe with explosives. But this type of scheme carries significant risks. Police might be slightly suspicious of a truck pulling an ATM machine down Main Street! Also, banks are doing a better job of securing their machines these days and may even install ink dye systems to render stolen currency useless.

A more common scenario is the use of "skimmers." These are legitimate-looking devices that fit over existing ATM hardware. They're used to capture account numbers and verification codes from the magnetic strips on bank cards. Card "trapping" has also proved lucrative. In this scenario, a device is placed directly over the ATM's card reader slot. The device retains the card after a customer inserts it, then a "helpful" Samaritan shows up and suggests that the customer enter his or her personal identification number (PIN) to get the card back. The thief observes entry of the PIN number, and later retrieves the card and withdraws cash from the ATM machine.