From January to end of November this year 476 cases of so-called skimming at ATMs were registered nationwide. The offence, which is named after English word for "skimming", refers to ft of sensitive financial data and secret figures by manipulated ATMs.

The thieves peek at customer data by manipulating card slots at ATM or bring in fake door openers at entrance of building, which call for reading card. The entry of secret number can n be filmed with mini cameras or stored by fake keyboard attachments. With stolen data, criminals n create a replica of card and try to buy it or withdraw money.

This only works in meantime, where payment process only checks magnetic strip, which is easy to copy. Since 2010 in Germany in almost all of approximately 100 million Girocards is a processor chip (EMV-chip) with which card is checked in ATM and at store for its aunticity. All of nearly 60,000 ATMs and 720,000 terminals in retail in Germany use EMV technology. The abbreviation EMV stands for companies Europay International, MasterCard and Visa, which have developed standard.

267 cases in Berlin

Of 476 skimming cases recorded by end of November, more than half are due to federal state of Berlin: While in capital city 267 vending machines were affected, it was in North Rhine-Westphalia, which ranks second in country rankings, 67 ATMs. The lowest numbers of data ft at ATMs were recorded by investigators in Schleswig-Holstein with three and in Lower Saxony with two cases. According to authorities, fact that data thieves strike especially in Berlin is due to numerous tourists. They would also come from countries where payment cards are not yet equipped with EMV technology and only forgery-unsafe magnetic strip is used in payment process.

"In Europe we have virtually no skimming damage thanks to modern technology," says Margit Schneider of Euro card systems, a company that is responsible for security management of card-based payment transactions on behalf of German banking industry. However, this only relates to actual damage to consumers.

Both cases and gross damage caused by skimming has risen again in year 2017: two million euros from January to November inclusive – an increase of more than 30 percent compared to same period last year (344 cases). Schneider explains this increase: group of perpetrators specializing in skimming tries to "exhaust everything that goes before EMV technology has prevailed everywhere".

Seldom danger for saved

In terms of past years, damage is still low: five years ago he summed up gross by using forged bank cards to 34 million euros. The damage is to be borne only to a part of domestic money houses: according to an international agreement – so-called liability reversal – for damage from fraudulent transactions with stolen card data, those countries that have lowest Safety standards.

In general, consumer does not have to fear for his savings: banks and savings companies replace damage caused by ft of database. The authorities neverless encourage prudent handling of data. It is not a bad matter to check if card is uninserted and possibly tampered with before withdrawing from ATM.

Date Of Update: 10 December 2017, 12:03