Crime Round-Up

ATM Crime Round-Up

Although a snapshot of cash related crimes taken from media reports, they are a reminder of the risks of cash related crime used to justify less cash. In January Cash & Payment News™ reported that for the first time ever no bank branch in Denmark had experienced an attack, since they no longer handle cash.

It is interesting to see here that dye staining works and the active response of the police.

Gang targets German ATMs

Die Welt, a German broadsheet newspaper, has investigated Germany’s ATM robbery problem. In 2022 there were about 500 attacks carried out by professional gangs usually using explosives. Germany has 55,000 ATMs.

The Federal Criminal Agency registered 414 attempted robberies of ATMs in 2020 with a similar number in 2021.

In May 2022 Europol, the Dutch police and the German Police Directorate worked together to arrest three suspected members of a criminal gang. This followed the arrest of three other gang members at the end of March. In October Die Welt said the perpetrators belong to a network of 700 largely Moroccan-Dutch criminals.

An association, the Alliance of Automated Teller Machines has been established to fight ATM crimes.

In March German police detained 42 people as part of a crackdown on gangs suspected of blowing up cash machines. Over three days police in seven of Germany's 16 states conducted searches on more than 5,300 vehicles and 8,000 people as part of an attempt to put ATM criminals under pressure across regional and international borders.

Arrests made at the Dutch border

A Dutch gang attacked an ATM in a shopping centre in Mülheim an der Ruhr, around 50 km from the Venlo border crossing early February. They succeeded in stealing cash, although the dye staining unit successfully activated staining the notes. The attack happened at 4am but the police found a burnt out car about 15 minutes after the attack, although no criminals. In the afternoon Dutch police stopped a car at the border and arrested four men aged 21 to 23 years old.

Stained banknotes and stains on the hands of those arrested suggested they had been involved. One man had serious injuries requiring hospital treatment.

Criminals active in Northern Ireland

Since February 2023 12 ATMs have been targeted by criminals in Northern Ireland, largely in rural areas. The attacks usually took place in the early hours of the morning.

US: pipe bomb and then gas used to attack ATMs

A San Diego judge in the US sentenced a man to 11.5 years in a federal prison for the bombing of two ATMs in 2017. The man, and his accomplice, stole $3,420. The men used a pipe bomb in the first attack but failed to gain entry to the money. In the second attack they drilled a hole in the machine, pumped gas into the machine and lit a fuse. This time they were able to get the cash box.

Malaysia: gas attack on ATMs

Three mechanics have been charged with an attack on two co-located ATMs resulting in the theft of RM300,000. They have admitted to other attacks during 2020 and 2022. It appears the gang only attacked machine belonging to one bank because the machines had not been updated.

The criminals used oxy-acetylene gas to blow open the machines, although they only managed to break in to one of ATMs. They had sprayed the CCTV cameras with ink and managed to carry out the attack in five minutes.

The ATMs were defended by dye mechanisms and the suspects were found using bleach to clean the dye off the notes.

Sri Lanka: entire ATM taken

Sri Lankan policy arrested seven men for allegedly stealing an ATM. A gang had raided a bank and removed the entire ATM in their van. When the police arrested the men, they also found the ATM.

Singapore: ATM used in money laundering

In Singapore an 18 year old girl has been found guilty of acting as a ‘runner’ for a group of criminals attacking ATMs, one of a group of eight ‘runners’. Their job was to open bank accounts and then withdraw money from ATMs as part of a money laundering operation connected to phishing scams. The proceeds, about $600,000, was funnelled through the bank accounts. The gang had stolen about $12.8 million.

Overview of ATM threats

The threat to ATMs is not just from criminal gangs attacking the machines but also digital attacks. A recent NielsenIQ International Retail Banking Consumer and Technology Survey of 12,000 people across 11 countries found that 10% of consumers experienced an ATM security breach or became aware of one over a period of 12 months. Often customer data is the target, not just immediate access to cash.

Digital attacks come in the form of ‘black boxes’, ATM malware and more insidious technologies. The most common type of attack is skimming, with the descriptions used to describe them revealing a new world of language and thinking, for example bezel, throat inlay skimming or deep insert skimming. To keep consumers' assets (cash and data) safe requires making constant updates and keeping a record of current configurations.

Proactive measures that are recommended include streamlining data into one comprehensive, centralised system that provides the most up-to-date inventory of fleet devices, hardware and software components. This helps detect threats in real-time, the manipulation of data and the identification of new types of threats sooner, and thus the implementation more quickly of protective measures.

The two most prominent types of physical attacks that ATMs now face are explosive attacks and ‘hook and chain’ attacks.

Explosive attacks can destroy the machine, risk the lives of people nearby and cause huge damage to the surrounding area, and the theft of the ATMs cash. While less destructive, hook and chain attacks can take less than two minutes and lead to losses of around $110,000 to $180,000.

To defend against physical attacks, the harder it is to access the ATM the better. ATM owners are adopting advanced monitoring, strengthened locking mechanisms and ink staining solutions.

As with banknote counterfeiting, different regions have different preferences when it comes to attacking ATMs. Europe and Latin America appear to favour explosive attacks while hook and chain attacks are popular in the US.