Before you use the bar or mini-mart’s ATM, you might want to think twice.  Robert Siciliano, a security expert for Intelius, an identity theft protection company, bought an independent ATM and decided to see just how safe they really are.

Siciliano then used an associate, a hacker, to see what they could find in the machine. “The next day after we bought it, my hacker comes over to my garage, manual in hand, all giggly, like hackers sometimes do and says, ‘Watch this.’ He punches the master codes to access the machine’s data . . . and hundreds of credit and debit card numbers just start falling all over the floor.’’

There were more than 1,000 numbers recorded in the machine that Siciliano and his colleague printed out. ATMs like that are resold all the time, Siciliano said. They are particularly easy to find in big cities and can be found from time to time in the Boston area.

“The issue with these types is the portability of them and anyone can get one and put it anywhere,’’ he said. They are easily hacked and the innards can be reconfigured to store your card data and PIN. A criminal can also affix skimming devices that capture your data from the card’s magnetic strip and they install wireless cameras that record your PIN codes.’’

Before you use a non-bank ATM, you might want to remember that they are easy to hack, have no security cameras, and could very well be a rogue machine placed there solely to steal your information.