New Trends in ATM Fraud

For the past 8 or 9 years, I have had an opportunity to attend the SAPTA group meetings (Skimming and Payment Terminal Attack), which are hosted by the U.S. Secret Service. Most of the attendees are law enforcement, but the ATM, payments, and banking industries are also invited to participate. Both Diebold Nixdorf and NCR Atleos were present for the meeting in Fort Worth, last month.

The Secret Service reported a significant increase in Jackpotting this year. Losses last year were about $6 million from 200 attacks. As of early last month, there had already been over 300 attacks this year, reaching that same $6 million level.

A new twist on TRF (Transaction Reversal Fraud) was discussed at the meeting in depth and also received a lot of attention in social media. Overall, the U.S. has not seen a lot of TRF. Recently, though, the crooks used prepaid cards to withdraw cash, then quickly transmit a reversal – which is sometimes allowed for up to 30 seconds. Many processors and issuers have responded by reducing the length of time allowed to transmit that reversal.

The frequency of RMS (Remote Management Services) attacks has also exploded over the past few months. In a recent attack, the perpetrators searched the Internet and found 700 ATMs across the U.S. using RMS. They were able to hack into those terminals and take them over with their own RMS system. Only ATMs with $5,000 or more were attacked. Withdrawal limits were increased to $800.  SSL was disabled. And teams were sent out to attack all the ATMs at the same time.

ATM criminals are very creative and very persistent. It is critical to stay alert, and take every feasible precaution to protect your fleet. And please, please, please, take a few minutes to record every incident of ATM crime that you become aware of to the CCMIS.

Best regards to all.
David