Transaction Reversal Fraud (TRF) criminal gang taken down
A criminal gang that committed fraud using the Transaction Reversal Fraud (TRF) method has been taken down in a coordinated international law enforcement operation led by authorities from Romania and the United Kingdom (UK), and supported by Europol and Eurojust.
The Romanian gang illegally withdrew large sums of money from ATM machines using TRF and laundered the proceeds by investing in real estate, companies, vacations and luxury products (including cars and jewellery). They mainly operated in the UK, but were also active in several other Western European countries.
In December 2024 law enforcement conducted an operation against the group in the UK. On 23 July 2025, a follow-up action was carried out against the gang, this time in Bacău, Romania. This operation led to:
- 2 arrests
- 18 house searches
- Seizure of real estate, luxury cars, electronic devices and cash
TRF is the unauthorised physical manipulation of an ATM cash withdrawal – it appears that the cash has not been dispensed and a transaction reversal message is generated by the ATM. For these attacks the suspects removed the screen of an ATM and inserted a bank card to request funds. Before the funds were dispensed, they cancelled the transaction (or reversed it). This allowed them to reach inside the machine and take the cash before it was retracted. Investigators believe the criminal group stole an estimated amount of €580,000 using this method.
The criminal gang was also involved in other criminal activities, including skimming, forging electronic means of payment and transport cards, and conducting BIN attacks (a type of card fraud carried out using software designed to identify card numbers and generate illicit income through fraudulent payments).
EAST focusses on tackling TRF through the EAST Expert Group on All Terminal Attacks (EGAF). EAST EGAF has published definitions of TRF and of other types of Terminal Fraud.
