Fraudsters Picking up their Forks!

• New cases of ATM fraud have been making headlines this month as, in the beginning of this summer, fraudsters started relying on a simple technique (based on a casual piece of cutlery) to take cash away from the ATMs. Several banks have been targeted in Ile-de-France, Normandy and Nord-Pas-de-Calais, and robbers would have got away with about 200,000 euros.

• First, a small amount is taken out (with a prepaid or counterfeited card for instance) to open the ATM. A pair of pliers or, basically, a simple fork is then used to prevent it from shutting down. A second withdrawal is made and instantly cancelled, and the tool is used to retrieve the larger amount of cash (500, or 1,000 euros). All banks would have been concerned and each explains having managed to set up countermeasures of its own. More than ten suspects have been interpellated mid-August.

Source: RTL

• The financial loss primarily assessed at one million euros has been revised by the Banque de France. In such cases, reactivity is key and video surveillance devices play a large part. Criminals are each time more imaginative and rely on clever tricks to reach their goals, thus imposing the implementation of new preventive measures. In this case, banking institutions did not join forces to craft a common solution, maybe to avoid disturbing in process investigation.

• A reparation cost must be added to the fraudulent withdrawals. Finally, we should note that Société Générale, claims this kind of fraud has actually been effective for about ten years but never reached such critical point.