News

EAST reports first 'jackpotting' incidents in latest ATM fraud update

July 8, 2014

Four countries reported ATM malware incidents related to cash-out or 'jackpotting' — an alarming fraud variant that's new to Western Europe.

The European ATM Security Team has published its second European Fraud Update for 2014, based on country crime updates from representatives of 19 countries in the single euro payments area, as well as three non-SEPA countries.

Card skimming at ATMs was reported by 18 countries, with increases reported by six countries and decreases by four. A new form of mini-skimmer was seen in one country and another reported that skimming devices are being left in place for longer periods — 4 to 5 days on average.

European fraud countermeasures such as geo-blocking, fraud monitoring and fraud detection continue to improve. Most ATM related card-skimming losses occur outside Europe, and are migrating away from EMV chip liability shift areas.

In 2014 such losses have been reported in 43 countries and territories outside of the single euro payments area and in four within SEPA. The U.S. is the top location for such losses, followed by Thailand and Indonesia.

From March to May, the European Cybercrime Centre at Europol supported four major cross-border police operations that took down criminal groups engaged in online auction fraud, online airline fraud, skimming fraud and electronic payment and document fraud. In many cases the criminals transferred stolen funds to unregistered prepaid cards for cash withdrawal at ATMs.

Twelve countries reported cash-trapping incidents; one reported related arrests. Eight countries reported transaction reversal fraud incidents. The use of the cash claw continues for both types of attack and a variant wrapped in tape has been seen for the first time.

Seven countries reported card-trapping incidents, and the use of mobile phones for PIN compromise seems to be spreading.

Four countries reported ATM malware incidents. These were related to cash-out or 'jackpotting,' as well as to the internal compromise of card and PIN data. Such attacks are new to Western Europe.

Ram raids and ATM burglary were reported by 10 countries; in one of them three gangs involved with such attacks were broken up. Eight countries reported explosive gas attacks and two reported attacks on ATMs using solid explosives. The overall rise in explosive attacks in Europe appears to be continuing.

Full or partial information for this update was provided by Austria; Belgium; Canada; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Finland; France; Germany; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Liechtenstein; the Netherlands; Norway; Portugal; Romania; Russia; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; the United Kingdom; and Ukraine.