European ATM related fraud incidents fell 26% when compared to 2013, although related losses were up 13%.
In a cash machine crime report covering the full year 2014 the European ATM Security Team (East) has reported a 26% decrease in ATM related fraud attacks, down from 21,346 in 2013 to 15,702 in 2014.
This fall was mainly driven by a 95% reduction in Transaction Reversal Fraud (TRF) attacks and a 31% reduction in cash trapping attacks. Losses from card trapping incidents and skimming attacks saw only marginal declines, down two percent and three percent respectively.
Despite the success of fraud-fighting technology at the ATM, losses rose from €248 million to €280 million. The spike was largely driven by an 18% rise in international skimming losses in the mag-stripe dependent US and Asia-Pacific regions (up from €201 million to €238 million). Domestic skimming losses fell nine percent over the same period.
East executive director Lachlan Gunn says: "The rise in international skimming losses is not being seen in European countries where regional card blocking, often known as geo-blocking, has been widely implemented. Keeping an active magnetic stripe on a European EMV card continues to make that card vulnerable to card skimming and geo-blocking significantly reduces the risk of successful compromise.”
In 2014 East also began to collect statistics for ATM malware after the first incidents of 'cash out' or 'jackpotting' were reported in Western Europe. Across the EU as a whole, 51 such incidents were reported in 2014, with related losses of €1.23 million.