Fergie's Tech Blog

Fraudsters Find Holes in Debit Card Fraud Detection

Jeremy Kirk writes on ComputerWorld:

Over the last few weeks, criminals have been exploiting weak fraud detection systems used for debit cards with "flash" attacks, where hundreds of withdrawals are made over a very short period of time.


Banking executives have noticed a rise in such attacks, where fraudsters withdraw money throughout a wide region within a span of just minutes, said Avivah Litan, a vice president at Gartner who frequently consults with banks about fraud issues.


"The fraud happens within 10 minutes in these geographic diverse locations," she said.


The amounts withdrawn are usually within a range that would not immediately raise a red flag, Litan said. She said a Canadian banker she recently spoke with said they noticed withdrawals from 100 ATMs all over Canada within 10 minutes.


The pattern is particularly interesting since it means that the criminal gangs are clearly coordinating the timing of the withdrawals using money mules, or people who are hired to do the risky job of taking a fraudulent payment cards to ATMs that are often under video surveillance.

posted by Fergie @ 10/27/2010 07:09:00 PM