SKINT skimmer

Wired have a good article on credit card skimming (read here). It is less prevalent in Ireland because unlike in the United States, the industry has added a chip as well as the mag stripe (the black strip on the back) to debit and credit cards. It is much harder to crack and so far there hasn't been any wholesale skimming of chipped cards, although techies have already demonstrated that 'Chip and PIN' can be hacked. That explains why ATM skimming attacks have almost died off in Ireland, while still on the increase elsewhere. One reader of Fakes, Frauds and Scams told me this week that their penniless student off-spring had their newly issued card skimmed in Dublin. Fortunately the thief didn't get any money because the student didn't have any and only used the ATM to change the PIN. The bank called the student within five minutes to tell her that the card had been skimmed and the card had been cancelled. The ATM in question in Dun Laoghaire is close to a ferry port so it's possible some bottom-feeder of the underworld had just arrived in the country unaware that Irish issued cards are chip and PIN and therefore much, much harder to clone. and was stuck for cash.

ATM thieves

This is how distraction thieves work their scam at an ATM. The lady in this clip lost €200.

SKIMMERS skive-off

IT appears that the professional gangsters who made millions from skimming bank cards at ATM's have finally given up on Ireland. This year there have been just three reported attacks in Ireland where better security and wary card-holders have made it too hard for the fraudsters to make a decent living. Organised gangs of foreign card-skimmers, who stole a staggering €4 million at the peak of the scam in 2005, made off with a mere €1.1 million in 2008. But now the professional skimmers seem to have packed up their mini-cameras, fake key-pads, card readers and their tubes of super glue and gone elsewhere looking for new victims.
Instead the fraudsters' focus has switched back to credit cards and using them to make fraudulent deals on internet retail websites. Total card-fraud, which includes both bank debit cards and credit cards, still cost Irish banks a total of €16.5 million in 2008. At 0.06 per cent of the €22.6 billion spent by Irish card-holders in 2007, the level of card fraud in Ireland is less that half the average rate across the European Union, according to newly released figures from the Irish Payment Services Organisation. In contrast to Ireland there has been an increase in ATM fraud last years across the EU with attacks up 149 per cent, in which an estimated €485 million was stolen, according to EAST. Last month European arrest warrants were issued for two people in Ireland as part of an investigation into skimming frauds worth €6.5 million. They were part of a group blamed for 35,000 fraudulent transactions using over 15,000 bank cards.
There were 24 arrests made in the other countries involved, with eight arrests in Italy, two in the Netherlands, two in Belgium and 12 in Romania. Recently Romanian skimmer Adrian Pleseru was jailed for his role in a card-cloning operation based in Dublin.

ATM fraud

There's been a few headlines this week about a gang using construction equipment to attack ATMs in Ireland. There's been five attacks in two weeks in which a lot of damage is done to the building housing the ATM. But the skimmers are still at it of course. Last week the Financial Ombudsman published their annual report and included two cases of people who had to battle with the banks after they claimed their cards were skimmed. One woman who lost €540 was denied a refund by her bank, but the Ombudsman came out on her side. A backpacker who claimed €4,000 was taken from his account was also turned down a refund. This time the Ombudsman said €2,000 taken in Italy did fit the pattern, but that the other transactions did not look like a typical fraud.

ATM fraud

At different ATM machines around Ireland there are little spots visible where skimmers glued on card readers and false fronts to hide their mini-cameras. To see what the equipment used by the fraudsters actually looks like check out this on The Consumerist.

SKIMMER caught in hospital

Another card skimmer was jailed today. Romanian Florian Lupu (21) was caught at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin in October, 2007. Security guards at the hospital, one of the biggest in Ireland, spotted the card reader attached to a machine and kept watch. Lupu was arrested when he and a co-accused came to retrieve their card reader and miniature camera. The other man fled the country after being released on bail. Lupu got a two year sentence.