According to figures released by the Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO), there were 2377 reported attacks of card skimming at European ATMs in the first nine months of last year resulting in losses of nearly €46 million.
The figures, contained in the first report on European ATM crime published by EAST (the European ATM Security Team), show that ATM fraud is one of the fastest growing crimes for most countries in Europe.
Card Trapping is also on the rise with 2636 reported attacks resulting in losses of just over €3 million.
To skim an ATM card criminals attach a device to the card reader entry slot to record a card's magnetic stripe details without the cardholder's knowledge. A miniature camera is hidden over the PIN pad which enables criminals to produce counterfeit cards and withdraw money using the legitimate PIN at ATMs which only read the magnetic stripe.
Card trapping involves attaching a device which retains the card inside the ATM whilst the criminals trick the victim into re-entering their PIN, which is then recorded or memorised.
"The people carrying out these attacks are most likely to be connected to
international crime gangs," said Ms Úna Dillon, Head of IPSO Card Services.
"The key aim of the IPSO Card Fraud Forum (CFF) and the IPSO ATM Crime Group is to make life more difficult for these gangs by boosting international links between the financial payments industry and law enforcement agencies both in Europe and internationally"
Banks across Europe are actively upgrading their ATMs with security devices that prevent both skimming and card trapping, as well as with EMV chip readers. Skimmed cards cannot be used at such ATMs.
The report also revealed that ram raids, where the criminals attempt to smash the ATM off its anchor, increased over the same period. Over 600 ram raids took place with resulting losses of almost €6 million.