MANILA, Philippines-Local banks will have to adopt a brand new security feature in ATM cards soon to combat card fraud that cost depositors significantly more than P200 million a year ago.
The ATM security feature is along with installing closed-circuit t.v. (CCTV) cameras and posting guards at ATM booths.
At the Senate hearing on ATM fraud, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) officials on Wednesday said it absolutely was time banks started using EMV chip technology in ATM cards to counter card “cloning” or “skimming. ”
AP FILE PHOTO
Bank executives agreed with the concept as some 1, 272 cases of ATM card fraud were reported in 2013 involving P220 million.
EMV, a technology manufactured by Europay, MasterCard and Visa, features a chip which contains information needed seriously to make use of the card for payment and is protected by various security features.
Vicente de Villa III, director for BSP’s Supervisory Data Center, said the human body had issued Circular Number 808 requiring all banks to shift from the magnetic strip technology to EMV chip technology.
All banks needs to have issued EMV-capable cards by January 2017, that he said.
“The big difference involving the two is that the data in the magnetic strip is static and permanent, thus, simple to copy, while EMV chip is more dynamic. Each time you employ it, there’s an algorithm being computed, ” that he said.
Deadline
De Villa said the BSP had set 2017 since the deadline since the shift to the EMV chip was high priced and would entail replacing hardware and pc software.
“Thank you for giving us the heads up. This is actually good progress, ” Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the investigating committee on public order and dangerous drugs, said of the BSP circular.
Arrested
A week ago, Presidential Security Group member Raphael Marcial was arrested for so-called cloning of ATM cards in Makati City. That he was delivered to a nearby court for inquest on charges of violating the ecommerce law.
That he was allegedly carrying a scanner device supposedly used to copy ATM cards, along with cards bearing different names.
In a current Inquirer report, police in Angeles City arrested an Italian man, Roberto de Cecco, caught installing a card-skimming device in an ATM machine in a PSBank branch in Barangay (village) Malabanias because city.
Police said the 2 Caucasian men with De Cecco fled following the latter was arrested.
Victim
One victim of ATM card fraud is just a journalist, who lost P27, 000 on Feb. -
On Feb 2, Elsa (not her real name) tried to withdraw P5, 000 from the PSBank ATM machine at the Ayala MRT on Edsa and unearthed that her account had an insufficient balance.
“I inquired about my balance and was told my account only had P499. 49. Once you understand I had a balance of above P20, 000 because account and thinking there was something very wrong with the equipment, I went along to the BPI Expressteller machine at the Enterprise Center at 7: 03 p. m. to ask about my balance. I was handed the figure P487. 49, ” she said.
Elsa said she straight away reported the situation to the PSBank branch on Chino Roces, Makati City. She was informed by PSBank that based on its investigation, P27, 000 was “successfully dispensed” on Feb. 1 by an ATM machine in an unnamed Metrobank branch.
“I wasn't anywhere near a Metrobank branch, notably less withdrawing money, on that date or time. That P27, 000 which was dispensed by your machine wasn't withdrawn by me and I will be really anxious to have that money-back, ” she said in a letter to Metrobank dated Feb. 7.
Elsa requested Metrobank for the CCTV footage of its branch and machine involved on the date under consideration to see who withdrew the cash.
Reply awaited
Metrobank has yet to answer Elsa’s request.
Miguel Bernabe, vice president of Bank of the Philippine Islands and chair of the Internetwork Anti-Fraud Committee, said the financial institution had begun getting ready to move toward the chip-based technology.
“We’re now already doing our pencil pushing in terms of how we’re in a position to migrate our ATM cards in to a chip-based technology. Positively, i will be complying with the circular, ” that he said.
Rene Natividad, vice president of operations for Bancnet, agreed with the BSP circular. “Some banks have started utilizing it, ” that he said.
Approaches to clone ATM card
In a PowerPoint presentation, Chief Insp. Jay Guillermo of law enforcement Anti-Cybercrime Group showed slides depicting different methods for ATM card cloning.
Based on him, cloning could be the method employed by criminals to recapture data from the magnetic tape on the rear of an ATM card, and is really a world wide problem.
This really is done by attaching a gadget to the ATM card entry slot that seems like an entry slot it self, without the flashing card indicator, Guillermo said.
Alternative methods are “piggybacking” a card-reading gadget onto the card reader, attaching a computer device to the ATM rain cover, and installing a computer device to the card reader, that he said.
Pinhole camera, skimmer
This really is complemented by devices attached either to the most notable of the ATM machine, a pinhole camera hidden behind a brochure holder, and a skimmer plate placed within the keyboard, all to recapture the PIN (personal identification number), that he said.
A fruitful cloning requires both a card skimmer or reader, and a camera suited to the ATM, law enforcement official said.
“They put skimming device morning or late evening, with respect to the precise location of the bank, ” that he said, pointing out that the criminals targeted banks that lacked surveillance cameras or security guards.
The copied information is employed to generate a duplicate ATM card.
A current attempt showed a fraudster wearing a helmet to cover up his face from the CCTV camera.
Nevertheless the most of banks have CCTV cameras that are included with the ATM machine, based on bank officials.
Cloning through the night
Fraudsters do the cloning through the night “because they know the cut-off of the banks, ” Natividad said.
“At 12 midnight a bank changes limit. Let’s say a bank features a P20, 000 withdrawal limit every single day. Basically go there, and I've a clone card, I’ll do the transaction starting at 11: 30 and put it to use up. I’ll perform a P20, 000 withdrawal. After 12 o’clock, I will do still another P20, 000. If the financial institution has more limits, there’s more exposure, ” that he said. “That’s why banks now are usually planning of limiting the limits on ATM. ”
Hearing this, Poe said: “I hope we don’t get it done due to the high prices of commodities. Maybe, it must be just one of the choices. Depositors with certain credit balance needs to have a specific limit. ”
Natividad later told reporters this was a precautionary measure being explored by banks “to limit the exposure. ”
“Whenever you will find cases similar to this, the exposure would you should be restricted to that amount, ” that he said. But that he said it might rely on the person banks whether to consider this.
