News

Low-tech attacks drive increase in European ATM crime

Card-skimming attacks fell by 18 percent during the first half of the year compared to 2014; card-trapping incidents rose by the same percentage.

October 15, 2015

ATM fraud in reporting European nations rose 15 percent during the first half of 2015, compared with the same period in 2014, according to the a new report by the European ATM Security Team.

The increase was driven by an uptick in card trapping and transaction reversal fraud. These attacks increased in number from 7,345 in the first half of 2014 to 8,421 in the first half of 2015, an EAST press release said.

The rise was attributable mainly to an 18 percent increase (from 2,579 to 3,043) in card-trapping incidents and a 985 percent increase (from 117 to 1,270) in transaction reversal fraud incidents.

EAST member nations reported 1,986 card-skimming incidents, down 18 percent from 2,425 in the first half of 2014.

Year over year, losses due to ATM-related fraud were up 18 percent (from 132 million euros to 156 million euros/$151 million to $179 million).

This rise was driven largely by an 18 percent rise (from 111 million euros to 131 million euros/$127 million to $150 million) in international skimming losses.

The Asia-Pacific region (particularly Indonesia) and the U.S. accounted for the majority of such losses. Domestic skimming losses rose 11 percent over the period.

"International skimming losses have risen for the past four reporting periods and EAST is working closely with Europol to raise awareness of this issue in Asia-Pacific and the Americas," EAST Executive Director Lachlan Gunn said in the release.

ATM-related physical attacks rose 19 percent (from 1,032 incidents to 1,232) during the half compared with 2014. An increase of 1,013 percent in reported robberies is explained by the fact that one country has been able to report in this category for the first time. In all, members reported 423 robberies, up from 38 in 2014.

Losses due to ATM-related physical attacks rose 100 percent (from 13 million euros to 26 million euros/$15 million to $30 million), again mainly due to the fact that one country reported losses due to robbery for the first time. Losses due to robbery rose from 400,000 to 10.5 million euros. The average cash loss for robberies was 24,799 euros/$28,460 per incident; for ram raids and ATM burglary 22,604 euros/$25,941 per incident and for explosive attacks 19,737 euros/$22,650 per incident.

For the first half of 2015, EAST members reported five ATM malware ("cash out" or "jackpotting") incidents, with related losses of 140,000 euros.

To counter the malware threat, the EAST Expert Group on ATM Fraud worked with Europol on the publication, "Guidance & recommendations regarding logical attacks on ATMs," which Europol released in June.

A summary of the report statistics appears below. The full report is available to EAST members and subscribers on the EAST website.