The European Payments Council on Dec. 30 published a list of recommendations regarding anti-skimming measures for ATMs within the Single Euro Payments Area, The Paypers reported this week. The council is the decision-making and coordination body of the European banking industry in relation to payments.
 
According to the council's report, ATM-skimming fraud, which involves illicitly copying ATM card information stored on magnetic stripes, is increasing in Europe. Despite the rollout of the Europay, MasterCard, Visa standard, also known as EMV, additional anti-skimming solutions are being used and deployed by individual ATM operators throughout Europe.
 
The report includes five recommendations for anti-skimming that ATM operators and schemes within SEPA can use.
 
The recommendations outline a series of minimum standards for anti-skimming measures, such as design of the entrance of the ATM card readers that prevents the attachment of skimming devices; measures for the identification, jamming or disturbing of skimming devices already attached to an ATMs; and remote electronic anti-skimming procedures that alert ATM operators when an ATM is tampered with.
 
Additionally, the report recommends ATM operators install privacy shields to hide customers' hands as they input PINs and display warnings about skimming devices and available incident report channels on or near the ATMs themselves.
 
The council also recommends fitting new ATMs that are to be installed in high-risk locations with anti-skimming devices as standard features. Anti-skimming devices should also be installed on ATMs that have been previously targeted and compromised by criminals.