The 10 Most Easily Stolen ATM Card PINs

d86e6f5e-ac7f-48bd-8ab4-2c0887f1dfbd_ATMPINTheft

How safe are your debit and credit cards?

Identity theft and fraud affect millions of Americans every year. And depending on how much thought you put into your personalized PIN, you could be at a greater risk than you realized.

So what constitutes a safe PIN number? A new study from DataGenetics lists the topĀ 10 most-used PINs. And because they are theĀ most commonly used PIN numbers, they are by default the least safe PINs.

According to Forbes, theĀ United States and Mexico are home to the greatest number of credit and debit card theftsĀ around the globe. Forty-two percent of Americans say they have suffered from some form of card fraud, a study from Aite Group and ACI Worldwide shows.

The Department of Justice says that aboutĀ 10 percent of all Americans suffer from credit card fraud each yearand another 7 percent have their debit cards hacked or stolen. More than $5.5 billion in theft is attributed to credit card fraud each year.

The DataGenetics study says that credit and debit card thieves are able to successfully guess more than 25 percent of stolen card PINs within 20 attempts.

And no surprise: the worst PINs are those that are overly simple or sequenced, i.e. ā€œ1234.ā€

WTOPĀ notes that the best PIN numbers are those ā€œwith no special significance.ā€ And in the case of the study, DataGenetics said the least used PIN is ā€œ8068.ā€

The 10 most-used PINs:

  1. 1234
  2. 1111
  3. 0000
  4. 1212
  5. 7777
  6. 1004
  7. 2000
  8. 4444
  9. 2222
  10. 6969