East (the European ATM Security Team) has reported a 15% increase in ATM related skimming losses, despite a 13% fall in skimming incidents.
The majority of these losses are occurring outside Europe in countries where the EMV* liability shift has not yet been adopted, or where the roll out of EMV compliant ATMs has not yet been completed. Overall ATM related fraud attacks decreased from 11,220 incidents during the first six months of 2011, to 9,595 for the first six months of 2012. Skimming attacks now make up just 35% of the European total with cases of card trapping, cash trapping and transaction reversal fraud accounting for the rest.
Losses due to ATM related fraud attacks increased by 17% from €112 million in the first six months of 2011 to €131 million for the same period this year. Of these losses the vast majority (€128 million) are still due to card skimming.
EAST Director and Coordinator Lachlan Gunn said, "What we are seeing is criminals working harder for less return. While skimming related losses have risen, they are still well below previous levels and increasingly the criminals are being driven outside Europe to realise them. This indicates the effectiveness of fraud counter-measures such as anti-skimming solutions and geo-blocking, fraud monitoring and fraud detection. While incidences of other types of ATM related fraud continue to rise, the losses are very low when compared to skimming. We are pleased to see that cases of cash trapping, which spiked at this time last year, have now started to decrease due to the roll out of counter-measures."
ATM related physical attacks on European ATMs have increased by 13% when compared with the first six months of 2011 (up from 857 to 968 incidents), driven by an increase in ram raids and ATM burglary. The number of reported explosive and gas attacks (194) has fallen by 11% when compared to the same period in 2011. Overall reported losses due to ATM physical attacks have fallen by 43%, although this is partly due to the fact that some countries, which previously reported such losses, are now no longer able ter able to do so.
*EMV (also known as 'chip and PIN') is an industry standard for Smart Cards and card readers, supported by the European Payments Council and the major payment schemesĀ