oh, don't pay any attention to me

do you use a pin and make withdrawals at an atm machine? be afraid -- be very afraid.

hackers have finally found a way to successfully breach the up-til-now fairly secure world of atm security. this article gives the details, which i encourage you to read. but this paragraph really caught my eye:

"PIN hacks hit consumers particularly hard, because they allow thieves to withdraw cash directly from the consumer's checking, savings or brokerage account, Sartin says. Unlike fraudulent credit card charges, which generally carry zero liability for the consumer, fraudulent cash withdrawals that involve a customer's PIN can be more difficult to resolve since, in the absence of evidence of a breach, the burden is placed on the customer to prove that he or she didn't make the withdrawal."

for some reason, each time we tried to start using a pin, we were unsuccessful (for whatever reason) and finally quit trying. yeah, i know -- hard to believe, isn't it. we actually can get along without atm withdrawals!!

at any rate, i'm glad we were never successful. that's one less scam we have to worry about. and considering the quote above, that could be a pretty big worry! be careful, everyone!