CARD attack attacked

The banking industry has hit back quickly against claims that chip and PIN cards are vulnerable to fraud. Click here for the Press Association story on the issue.

CARD attack

The banking industry's confidence about chip and PIN cards looks set to take a battering. It has been demonstrated by researchers at the University of Cambridge how a stolen card can be used in retail outlets and online. The problem for customers is that it comes up as a PIN verified transaction and banks are refusing to refund customers for what appears to have been a legitimate transaction. The cards can't be used by criminals at an ATM or once it has been reported stolen and cancelled. Read more about it here.

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.

CARD skimmers

Irish people just love ATMs, using the cash machines twice as much as the EU average. Card skimming, however, has quietly gone off the radar in Ireland. While the level of skimming has dropped from a peak of €14 million in 2002, there are individuals and gangs still operating in the country. The value of card fraud is still about the same but has dropped significantly as a proportion of transactions, according to figures from the Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO). Many bank customers are aware of skimmers and look out for possible card-readers attached to ATMs. Bank security has improved as well to make life harder for the skimmers. Late last year there were organised attempts to skim card details from retail outlets in which fraudsters posed as technicians to tamper with or replace point-of-sale card readers. It's a more audacious way of harvesting Pins and customers but potentially very effective.
It's a sure sign that the improved security and awareness has forced skimmers to look for new ways in. Once one point of attack is closed off to the fraudsters they'll look for another weak spot
But the future doesn't hold out any good news unless the banks move early to ensure their systems are safe. An article in today's Wired magazine suggests that hackers have found a weak spot in the banking system to harvest unencrypted Pins. In the meantime keep an eye on your account...