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As ATM security rises, skimmers board train ticket machines

September 19, 2012

Moving right along … Now that ATM operators more sophisticated means to detect and prevent machine tampering, criminals are finding easier pickings for their skimming operations.

Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has reported that fraudsters have begun using ATM skimming devices to collect PINs and data at card readers of train ticket machines, said a report from German news outlet The Local.

The BKA said that this is a new twist on card fraud that it's seeing for the first time. So far, the authority has received reports of 25 ticket machines having been tampered with, the article said, quoting Tuesday's issue of Die Welt.

Meanwhile, ATM skimming has experienced a dramatic drop in Germany. Reported incidents fell by half between 2010 and 2011, and have continued to decline through 2012. BKA president Jörg Zierke credits anti-skimming technology on ATMs and skimming-resistant EMV cards for the reduction in ATM fraud.

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