News

EAST releases new stats on European ATM fraud

March 19, 2013

The European ATM Security Team has published its first European Fraud Update for 2013. The document includes ATM crime reports from representatives of 21 countries in the Single Euro Payments Area and also from two non-SEPA countries.

All but one country reported skimming, with increases in eight countries and decreases in four countries. The trend currently is toward card skimming at ATMs abroad (mainly in South America) when a cardholder withdraws cash in-country.

ATM related fraud losses continue to migrate away from EMV chip liability shift areas, the EAST report said. From January to December 2012 losses were reported in 54 countries and territories outside SEPA and in 17 countries within SEPA.

The U.S. continues to incur the greatest losses, followed by the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Mexico. Meanwhile, more countries are reporting the use of regional card blocking (in which an issuer bars the use of a card outside of EMV chip liability shift areas). Ten countries now report some form of geo-blocking.

Use of the cash claw for cash trapping is spreading and this device is also being used to assist with transaction reversal fraud. Cash trapping incidents were reported by eighteen countries, with significant increases in three countries.

Ram raids and ATM burglary were reported by nine countries. Seven countries reported the use of explosive gas, a form of attack that seems to be on the rise across Europe.

EAST fraud updates are issued three times annually. The following countries supplied full or partial information for this update:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ukraine.

Read more about trends and statistics.