EAST Upgrades Terminal Fraud Definitions

EAST has upgraded its Terminal Fraud Definitions to illustrate what the criminal target outcome is for each fraud type.  This information is now available on the EAST website.

The EAST Expert Group on All Terminal Fraud (EGAF) has identified six ways by which criminals achieve their targets from the different terminal fraud types as shown below:

In the upgraded Terminal Fraud Definitions each applicable criminal benefit is highlighted next to each terminal fraud type.  The defined Terminal Fraud Types are: Card Skimming; Card Shimming; Eavesdropping; Card Trapping; Cash Trapping; Transaction Reversal Fraud (TRF); Malware; and Black Box.

Below is the definition for Card Skimming which highlights that skimming enables criminals to: Create counterfeit cards; make card-not-present (CNP) purchases; use fake cards in-store; and sell compromised data.

EAST Executive Director Lachlan Gunn said “This is a major step forward in standardising the classification of terminal fraud, which will hopefully help to continue to drive down related fraud losses. The EGAF Chair, Otto de Jong, and his team have produced something fresh and simple which we hope will be adopted globally by the Industry and Law enforcement when describing or reporting terminal fraud. In particular we would like to thank Ben Birtwistle of NatWest Bank plc, along with Claire Shufflebotham and Niek Westendorp of TMD Security, whose creative ideas and design made this latest upgrade possible.”

A summary of the upgraded fraud definitions and terminology is available on the EAST website along with a more detailed document for download.  These have been classified ‘WHITE’ under the terms of the EAST Information Security Policy and may be shared freely, subject to standard copyright rules.