ATM Explosive Attacks surge in Europe

In a European ATM Crime Report covering the first six months of 2016 EAST has reported that ATM explosive attacks were up 80% when compared to the same period in 2015.

A total of 492 explosive attacks were reported, up from 273 during the same period in 2015.  While the majority were explosive gas attacks, 110 were solid explosive attacks.  EAST Executive Director Lachlan Gunn said, “This rise in explosive attacks is of great concern to the industry in Europe as such attacks create a significant amount of collateral damage to equipment and buildings as well as a risk to life.  The EAST Expert Group on Physical Attacks (EGAP) is working to analyse the attacks and to share intelligence best practice information across the industry and law enforcement that can help to mitigate the threat.”

Overall ATM related physical attacks rose 30% when compared with H1 2015 (up from 1,232 to 1,604 incidents).  Losses due to ATM related physical attacks rose 3% to €27 million (up from €26.3 million in 2015).  The average cash loss for a ram raid or burglary attack is estimated at €17,327, the average cash loss per explosive attack is €16,631 and the average cash loss for a robbery is €20,017.  These figures do not take into account collateral damage to equipment or buildings, which can be significant and often exceeds the value of the cash lost in successful attacks.

EAST also reported a 28% increase in ATM related fraud attacks, up from 8,421 in H1 2015 to 10,820 in H1 2016.  This rise was mainly driven by a 281% increase in Transaction Reversal Fraud (up from 1,270 to 4,840 incidents).  The downward trend for card skimming continues with 1,573 card skimming incidents reported, down 21% from 1,986 in H1 2015.

Losses due to ATM related fraud attacks were up 12% when compared with H1 2015 (up from €156 million to €174 million).  This rise was largely driven by an 8% rise in international skimming losses (up from €131 million to €142 million).  The Asia-Pacific region (particularly Indonesia) and the USA are where the majority of such losses were reported.  Domestic skimming losses rose 24% over the same period.

The number of ATM logical attacks reported continues to rise.  28 incidents were reported (all ‘cash out’ or ‘jackpotting’ attacks), up from just 5 during the same period in 2015.  Related losses were €0.4 million.

A summary of the report statistics under the main headings is in the table below:

The full Crime Report is available to EAST Members (National and Associate).