ATM card skimming costing banks €3.5m

Criminal gangs have used card-skimming devices to defraud banks of €3.5m this year, it emerged today.

There have been more than 150 of the sophisticated devices placed on ATMs across the country with an average haul of the gangs of €50,000.

The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation warned bank customers to be on the alert for any suspicious devices attached to ATMs. “In the run up to Christmas, there’s a lot of money in circulation, so we expect the criminals to be more active,” said Superintendent Eugene Gallagher.

The criminal gangs are predominantly from Eastern Europe and move round the country to target different ATMs.

The number of incidents has risen from one or two a month last year to one or two per week in the early stages of this year and is now running at two or three incidents per day.

Gardaí today launched a public awareness campaign with the Irish Payment Services Organisation IPSO which will see posters put up in banks and garda stations.

Superintendent Gallagher said the force had quite a lot of success recently in combating the fraud, with major operations against two Eastern European gangs.

“Up to 20 people are before the courts at the moment and we expect there will be a number of arrests in the near future,” he said.

The criminal gangs attach card skimming devices to ATMs as well as micro cameras to discover the pin number being entered by the card-holder.

Once the device has obtained the information from the pin card it can be copied rapidly onto a blank card and used in conjunction with the pin to withdraw money from the customer’s account.

In many cases, the gangs use the card just before midnight so that they can withdraw the full daily limit and then strike again after midnight.

IPSO spokeswoman Una Dillon said card skimming devices had been discovered on ATMs throughout the country. “There are no trends. If you look to the incident reports, they are happening absolutely everywhere – Galway, Limerick, Clare. It could be a busy street or it could be out in the country,” she said.

Ms Dillon said that all customers who were affected by card-skimming would be compensated by the banks, although she warned that they would be able to detect any fraudulent claims.

“There are people who come out of the woodwork and claim their card has been skimmed. It’s usually fairly obvious,” she said.

The banks have spent €100m on introducing the Chip and Pin system for laser cards and credit cards. When this is complete it is expected to reduce the number of card-skimming incidents because Chip and Pin cards are more expensive to clone.

Gardai have warned people not to interfere with any suspicious devices they see attached to ATMs because the criminal gangs are usually waiting a short distance away.

There have been cases in Europe where customers have been attacked with stun guns for interfering with the devices, which cost the gangs up to €15,000, but in Ireland the only reported incident so far has been a scuffle between a gang and a member of the public in Dublin.