"Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it" or variations thereof is a profound and frequently cited quote. It's commonly attributed to Winston Churchill, but most authoritative sources attribute it originally to George Santayana in his work "Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense."
Regardless of who the original author is, one of the reasons that it's so frequently cited is its applicability to so many situations. Even point of sale skimming, it turns out. In our blog post from last October, we shared a news story that mentioned the arrest of two criminals who had placed skimmers on US Post Office stamp vending kiosks in Pittsburgh, PA. This week comes news via cyber crime reporter extraordinaire Brian Krebs that the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is investigating fraud on payment cards that had been used at USPS kiosks in more than 13 states. Krebs shares a response from the USPIS stating:
"it is urging USPS employees to visually inspect the Automated Postal Center (APC) machines multiple times during the day."
Fortunately, for anyone who wants to ensure that visual inspection of a kiosk, ATM, vending machine, gas pump, or any other payment acceptance device happens on a repeatable schedule, there is a solution.
If you have unattended payment acceptance devices, you need an anti-skimming solution. Don't repeat the mistakes of the past. As long as they keep being made, opportunistic criminals will continue to exploit them.