This story seems to come straight out of a James Bond and yet it is real. Our colleagues from Boursorama have brought to light a new type of bank card scam which was reported to them by the Paris police headquarters.
Thanks to a sophisticated ATM hacking system, the criminals managed to duplicate their victims’ card data in real time. The damage amounted to several tens of thousands of euros.
A new technique in France
Even more elaborate than the Marseille snare technique, this scam starts with a pirate box installed on payment terminals (car park, service station, etc.) on the same principle as skimming. Once the victim inserts his bank card into the box, he then gives full access to his data to the thieves.
“The criminals recovered the data contained on the bank tracks, the 16 digits, the validity date, the cryptogram, often to resell them. What is new is that this time they have managed to duplicate the flow of data that enters and leaves the chip”, explains a police source at 20 Minutes, taken up by Boursorama.
This additional detail is of paramount importance: a few kilometers from the victim, the criminals were able to withdraw money from an ATM in real time with a doctored bank card. The latter took over all the information from the victim’s card, thus allowing the scammers to withdraw money from the account without difficulty. Therefore, it is difficult not to fall into the trap, however complicated your secret code may be.
An international scam
According to figures obtained by 20 Minutes, these fraudulent boxes would have been installed on a dozen terminals and they would have made it possible to steal some 39,000 euros. “It is believed that the amount of their attempts amounts to 115,000 euros but that they have experienced a number of failures”, acknowledges the source.
In this case, two Bulgarian nationals were indicted for organized fraud and fraudulent extraction of data. If this scam was identified for the first time in France during the past year, London identified several cases of the same type a few months earlier.
Faced with risk, it is a question of being ever more vigilant in the face of attempted fraud. When you use a means of payment, always remember to check that the terminal or the distributor you are using is reliable. For example, another scam, involving a simple sticker on an ATM, can siphon off your bank account. If you have the slightest doubt, it is better to block your card (via the application of an online bank for example), or even oppose it.
