News

EAST cases out ATM crime stats in 2014 full-year report

Though ATM fraud incidents fell by more than a quarter for the year, a reduction in losses did not follow — in fact, the cost of ATM-related crime rose by double digits.

April 15, 2015

A crime report from the European ATM Security Team reveals that ATM-related fraud incidents in Europe were down 26 percent year over year in 2014, but overall losses were up 13 percent.

The number of fraud incidents of all types fell from 21,346 in 2013 to 15,702 in 2014, according to an EAST press release.

The decline in incidents was driven mainly by a 95 percent reduction in transaction reversal fraud and a 31 percent reduction in cash trapping incidents.

EAST member nations reported 5,631 card skimming incidents, down 3 percent from 5,822 in 2013. Card trapping incidents fell 2 percent, from 5,394 to 5,298.

However, losses due to ATM related fraud attacks were up 13 percent when compared with 2013 (from 248 million euros/$262 million to 280 million euros/$296 million).

The rise was driven largely by an 18 percent rise in international skimming losses (up from 201 million euros/$213 million to 238 million euros/$252 million). The majority of these losses occurred in the United States and the Asia-Pacific region.

"The rise in international skimming losses is not being seen in European countries where regional card blocking, often known as geo-blocking, has been widely implemented," said EAST Executive Director Lachlan Gunn. "Keeping an active magnetic stripe on a European EMV card continues to make that card vulnerable to card skimming and geo-blocking significantly reduces the risk of successful compromise."

ATM-related physical attacks fell 6 percent when compared with 2013 (from 2,102 to 1,980 incidents). This is partly explained by an 11 percent decrease in reported solid explosive and explosive gas attacks, EAST said.

Losses from ATM-related physical attacks rose 17 percent to 27 million euros ($29 million), up from 23 million euros ($24 million) in 2013. The average cash loss for ram raids/ATM burglary was 25,640 euros ($27,114) per incident, up from 11,393 euros ($12,048) in 2013. While around 40 percent of such attacks do not result in cash loss, collateral damage to equipment and buildings can be significant.

In 2014, EAST began to collect statistics for ATM malware-related cash out or "jackpotting" attacks after the first incidents were reported in Western Europe. Fifty-one such incidents were reported, with related losses of 1.23 million euros ($1.3 million)

A summary of the report statistics under the main headings is in the table below. The full report, with breakdowns for each crime category, is available to EAST members and subscribers on the EAST website.