News

Low-tech ATM attacks rise in Europe; US remains card fraud epicenter

April 17, 2013

As EMV-enabled ATMs continue to foil counterfeit card use in Europe, criminals there are adopting tactics that require far less finesse, according to the European ATM Security Team.

EAST has reported that between 2011 and 2012, relatively low-tech ATM-related crimes such as cash- and card-trapping and charge reversal increased in number from 20,244 to 22,450. While cash-trapping incidents were down 12 percent year over year, card-trapping incidents were up a startling 75 percent and cash reversal fraud rose 1,800 percent from 155 incidents in 2011 to 2,978 in 2012.

Physical attacks on European ATMs increased by 6 percent (from 1,818 to 1,920) overall when compared with 2011. Reported explosive and gas attacks (530) rose for the third successive year, up 28 percent compared with 2011.

However, this is not to say that skimming fraud is not still big business. Losses due to card skimming attacks rose 12 percent from €232 million ($302 million) to €260 million ($338 million). The lion's share of loss takes place beyond European borders, chiefly in the United States, though the Dominican Republic and Brazil are also popular targets. In 2012 85 percent of card losses were international, an increase of 21 percent compared with 2011.

One countermeasure increasingly used by European FIs is geo-blocking. Europol has endorsed the practice as a temporary solution to counterfeit fraud, and has recommended that the EU take urgent measures to promote EMV as the global solution to card counterfeiting.