Don't look now, but criminals are moving beyond the ATM and unwary retailer when trying to steal your members' card numbers and raid their accounts.

The basics of skimming, the unauthorized on-site capture of debit card information at an ATM or other location is nothing new. Fraudsters, particularly overseas, have long attached devices to ATMs to capture the card numbers of unwitting cardholders while, separately, they have positioned small cameras to capture the cardholders' PIN numbers when they enter them. Or, conversely, a fraudulent waiter in a restaurant might use a device to capture card data when he or she takes the card to pay for the meal.

In general, the problem has been more widespread in Europe than in the U.S., with many perceiving it as a fringe or niche cause of fraud, particularly when compared to the massive losses attributed to card security breaches caused by hackers. But the $18 billion State Employees' Credit Union, headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. and other financial institutions in the area have discovered that thieves are beginning to take skimming to a new level.