93% of US ATMs Never Found a Skimming Device

The National ATM Council, Inc. (“NAC”), a not-for-profit national ATM trade association representing America’s IAD’s, announced today that the results of its industry-wide U.S. Retail ATM Skimming Survey.

The survey results show ninety-three percent (93%) of the companies operating ATMs at retail locations throughout the U.S. have never experienced a credit card “skimming” incident at their ATMs. Of the ATM operators responding to the survey, over half have been in the ATM business for ten or more years and inspect their ATMs at least once per week. The survey includes a broad representation of the U.S. independent ATM industry – with respondents ranging in size from 1 to over 5,000 ATMs in their operations.

“These skimming device survey results confirm that retail ATMs are secure and the incidence of card data theft is extremely low,” said Bruce Renard, NAC Executive Director. “At the same time, we recognize from prior experiences in other countries that we are likely to see a rise in card fraud and skimming in the near term, with the implementation of EMV in the U.S.”

NAC is continuing its work with the retail ATM sector in helping raise awareness and promoting detection and deterrence of skimming devices among the industry and consumers. These initiatives include our skimming survey, issuance of industry alerts and ongoing development of anti-skimming device guidelines for retailers. The top three countries reporting losses from ATM skimming remain the U.S., Indonesia, and the Philippines according to the European ATM Security Team (EAST) fraud update in the first quarter of 2016.

EAST said ATM skimming devices were reported in 20 countries attending its meeting in February. The data for EAST’s “European Fraud Update for 2016” is primarily from updates by representatives of 19 countries in the Single Euro Payments Area and four countries outside that area.  The use of “throat inlay ATM skimming devices” appears to be on the rise, the group said. Three countries reported ATM skimming attacks employing throat inlay devices, which are placed inside the card reader throat in front of the shutter.

No ATM Skimming devices have ever been found or reported on any ATM deployed by ATMDepot said CEO, Noah Wieder.