According to experts, data theft at ATMs in Germany is an “obsolete model”. More skimming attacks than ever before, the damage in the current year at a record low. That’s the good news.

The secret number in the wallet Yes Criminals are looking for other ways to gain access to someone else’s accounts – and they are successful. Because, against all warnings, many consumers keep their payment card and PIN together in their wallet, the damage increases as a result of the theft of the cards.

“In retail stores, you can also withdraw money with the PIN at the cash register . We assume that criminals make extensive use of it, “says Margit Schneider from Euro Kartensysteme. The Frankfurt facility takes care of the security management for payment cards on behalf of the German banking industry.

Damage amount has increased The number of cases of loss and theft of payment cards in the current year up to and including November fell to 9. 682. In the eleven months of the same period last year it was 10. 004. However, the gross damage from loss and theft of cards rose from good 13 , 5 million euros to around 14, 2 million euros up to and including November.

In the vast majority of cases, the cardholders claim that their secret numbers have also been stolen, said Euro Card Systems. Security expert Schneider emphasizes: “The PIN belongs in your head, not in your wallet.”

Skimming incidents are on the decline At ATMs in Germany, data thieves are increasingly trying to spy out sensitive data from bank customers. From January up to and including November 2020, criminals manipulated nationwide 134 Times ATM. In the previous year there were 227 such skimming cases, in the full year 2019 it was 245. Individual machines may have been attacked several times.

Investing billions in more security for plastic money makes it more difficult for criminals to do their illegal business: the fraudulent card data is becoming increasingly difficult to use. Because duplicate cards basically only work where payment cards are equipped with relatively easy-to-copy magnetic strips and the reading devices in retail are designed for magnetic strips.

Counterfeit cards based on customer data stolen in Germany, came this year mainly in India (good 34 percent damage share), the USA (good 25 percent) and Indonesia (around 16 percent) for use.

Technically upgraded against Fraud Overall, the gross loss from skimming continued to decline at a low level in the current year. Euro Kartensysteme puts the gross amount of damage caused by spying on card data and secret numbers up to and including November at just over a million euros. This is a record low. In the same period of the previous year, the skimming damage amounted to around EUR 1 25 million euros for the full year 2019 it was a little more than 1.4 million euros in damage.

The industry mainly lists the decline Investment in the so-called EMV technology, which Germany has been relying on for years: Payment cards are equipped with a kind of mini-computer, the card is checked for authenticity every time it is used. In addition, so-called anti-skimming modules at an increasing number of ATMs are making it difficult to illegally read card data. In the year 2013 the skimming damage in Germany still amounted to 11, 3 million euros, 2012 like 2011 it was even each 34 Million Euros.

Countries with the lowest security standards must pay Thanks to international agreements, the local banking industry can now recover almost the entire loss amount. Since January 1st 2019, for example, international agreements have also come into effect in India, according to which the countries with the lowest rates for damages from fraudulent transactions with stolen card data are in effect Security standards must arise. In Indonesia this is the case from January 1st 2022.

In the past few years criminals within Germany have tried to obtain card data, especially in Berlin. Due to the large number of foreign tourists whose payment cards are not yet equipped with an EMV chip, the federal capital seemed a worthwhile place. In the current year, however, the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia has the red lantern, with so far 44 manipulations at ATMs . In Berlin the number of more than 100 cases a year ago fell to just once 12 Cases.

(tiw)