EAST EGAF holds 20th Meeting in Amsterdam

The 20th Meeting of the EAST Expert Group on All Terminal Fraud (EAST EGAF) took place on Wednesday 15th January 2020 at ING Domestic Bank in Amsterdam.

EAST EGAF is a regional expert group that focuses on regional and global payment terminal crime and fraud related issues, threats and counter-measures.

The meeting was chaired by Mr Otto de Jong from ING Bank and was attended by key representatives from Terminal Deployers, Terminal Vendors, Networks, Card Schemes, Security Equipment and Software Vendors, Law Enforcement and Forensic Analysts.

This was a milestone meeting and, in recognition of his work in founding and supporting EGAF, as well as his 16 years of active support for EAST, Otto was presented with an award by Ms Veronica Borgogna of BANCOMAT S.p.A, the current Chair of EAST.

Presentations were made by Europol (AP Cyborg), Geldmaat, Damage Control and Fiducia & GAD IT AG.

The EGAF Group, which meets three times a year in advance of each of the meetings of EAST National Members, enables in-depth and technical discussion to take place on Logical and Malware attacks, Card Skimming, Card Trapping, Cash Trapping and Transaction Reversal Fraud.

In addition EAST EGAF generates EAST Fraud Alerts for all EAST Members (National, Global and Associate). In total 227 EAST Fraud Alerts have been issued, 2 to date in 2020.

New EAST Fraud Definitions now available in Russian

EAST Terminal Fraud Definitions are now available in the Russian language.  At the end of 2018 EAST upgraded its Terminal Fraud Definitions to illustrate what the criminal target outcome is for each fraud type.  In the upgraded definitions each applicable criminal benefit is highlighted next to each terminal fraud type.

The translation was carried out by two EAST National Member organisations – the Ukrainian Interbank Payment Systems Member Association “EMA”  and the MasterCard Members Association (MCMA).

These fraud definitions are used by EAST when issuing Fraud Alerts, or when compiling the statistics and other information for European Payment Terminal Reports and Fraud Updates.  The aim is for these Terminal Fraud Definitions, as well as the related criminal benefits, to be adopted globally when describing or reporting payment terminal fraud.  This translation into Russian is another step forward towards achieving this.

Below is the  definition for Card Skimming in the Russian language.

The definitions have been classified ‘WHITE’ under the terms of the EAST Information Security Policy and may be shared freely, subject to standard copyright rules.

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.

fraud definitions - card skimming

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.

200 Fraud Alerts Issued by EAST

EAST has published its 200th Fraud Alert.  These Alerts are issued by EAST National Members, often with the support of Law Enforcement and other EAST Associate Members.  To date 28 countries have issued Fraud Alerts covering ATMs, Unattended Payment Terminals (UPTs) and Point of Sale (POS) Terminals.

EAST first started issuing Fraud Alerts in September 2013.  These Alerts provide valuable and timely intelligence to law enforcement agencies and the industry, allowing the spread of emerging threats and criminal methodologies to be tracked across the world.  While most of the Alerts have been issued by countries within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), there have been some from Belarus, Mexico, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States.

To date EAST Fraud Alerts issued have covered:  Black Box attacks (cash out / jackpotting); Card Shimming (S1 devices); Card Skimming (highlighting the spread of different devices such as M1, M2, M3, D2 and D3); Card Trapping; Cash Trapping; Deposit Fraud; Eavesdropping (highlighting the use of different MOs such as E2 and E3); EMV Shock Cards; Malware (cash out / jackpotting); Transaction Reversal Fraud; and Vandalism.  The table below shows a summary the Alerts issued:

Fraud Alerts

Definitions of the different fraud types and related terminology are available on this website.

The EAST Expert Group on All Terminal Fraud (EGAF) initiated the Fraud Alerts and conducts in-depth analysis of some of the emerging threats and devices.  Each Alert covers: the type of fraud; the country where discovered; the terminal type(s) affected; an indication as to whether or not the fraud was successful; a description of the device and the criminal MO; indication as to the device location; information on PIN compromise (if card skimming or card trapping); and any available images.

EAST also issues Payment Alerts and Physical Attack Alerts.

EAST Alerts contain sensitive information and are restricted to EAST Members (National and Associate).  They are classified as AMBER using the variant of the Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) adopted by EAST.

EAST Fraud Alerts

To date 155 EAST Fraud Alerts have been issued by 25 countries.  EAST first started issuing such Alerts in September 2013.  These Alerts provide valuable and timely intelligence to law enforcement agencies and the industry, allowing the spread of emerging threats and criminal methodologies to be tracked across the world.  While most of the Alerts have been issued by countries within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), there have been some from Belarus, Mexico, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States.

To date EAST Fraud Alerts issued have covered:  ATM Malware / Black Box attacks (cash out / jackpotting); Card Shimming; Card Skimming (highlighting the spread of different devices such as M1, M2 and M3); Card Trapping; Cash Trapping; Eavesdropping (highlighting the use of different MOs such as E2 and E3); EMV Shock Cards; Transaction Reversal Fraud; and Vandalism.  The table below shows a summary the Alerts issued:

EAST Fraud Alerts

The EAST Expert Group on All Terminal Fraud (EGAF) initiated the Alerts and conducts in-depth analysis of some of the emerging threats and devices.  Each Alert covers: the type of fraud; the country where discovered; the ATM type(s) affected; an indication as to whether or not the fraud was successful; a description of the device and the criminal MO; indication as the device location; information on PIN compromise (if card skimming or card trapping); and any available images.

The Alerts are restricted documents and are issued to to EAST Members (National and Associate) for their internal usage.

Definitions of the different fraud types and related terminology are available on this website.