BBB warns of ATMs that have been tampered with - New York News | NYC Breaking News

This is the time of year when people prepare to spend a lot of cash on Black Friday deals. But as usual, it's also the time they could lose a lot of cash to ATM scams and thefts.

Here's a reminder on how to protect yourself when you head out to the stores.

Scammers can do all kinds of things with ATMs these days – tamper with the place where you insert your card, or tamper with the pin pad buttons – so the Better Business Bureau wants people to pay attention.

"Scammers know you're out there spending more," says Felicia Thompson, BBB. "Probably not paying attention to the little details because you want to get the deals and beat the rush."

This is the time of year scam artists look for easy targets. One way is by tampering with ATMs.

One way to protect yourself is to only use ATMs at bank branches or inside grocery stores, where the machines are monitored. One thing crooks do is mount a tiny camera on standalone ATMs and record your pin number.

Thompson says you should wiggle the swiping portion of the machine just to make sure it hasn't been tampered with – and if you have any doubts, don't use it.

You should also be careful of the card scanner at the gas station pumps – that's one place that scammers target.

FOX 10's Kelly Hessedal reports.