the.com/skimmer
A thief that wears your favorite gas pump as a disguise.
means A device secretly attached to a card reader—often at a gas pump or ATM—that steals your card data as you pay, or more broadly any tool or person that lightly removes something from a surface.
from From the verb 'skim,' which goes back to Middle English 'skimen,' meaning to remove the floating scum or cream off the top of a liquid—itself probably from Old French 'escumer,' to scum, rooted in a Germanic word for foam (a cousin of modern 'scum'). For centuries a skimmer was the kitchen ladle that lifted froth off the pot; only recently did criminals borrow the image, the new 'skimmer' lifting your money off the top just as quietly.
- slim profile
- Some fit inside card readers, totally invisible from outside
- bluetooth thieves
- Crooks pull stolen data without ever returning
- bird namesake
- A skimmer bird slices water with its lower beak
- pool duty
- The honest kind just eats floating leaves
red-billed skimmer — bird species that flies with lower mandible cutting water surface in south america and africa
black skimmer — north american bird found along atlantic and gulf coasts that skims fish from water at dawn and dusk
pool skimmer — common household tool with net basket used to remove debris from swimming pools