A criminal group from Brazil managed to steal more than 1.5 million Euros ($1.65 million) from a German bank by “cloning” customers’ debit cards and stealing money , despite the fact that the original cards were protected by technology EMV (chip-and-pin)
The German bank that fell victim to the attack was Oldenburgische Landesbank (OLB). The attacks took place last week.
Several security researchers became aware of the incident after noticing suspicious behavior. The criminals only used Mastercard debit cards issued by OLB.
The bank said on Friday, August 27, that the attack affected only 2,000 customers and that they have already been compensated.
It also blocked all Mastercard debit cards and is now in the process of issuing new ones to replace them.
OLB said in a statement that the attack on its customers was part of an organized crime scheme involving counterfeit cards and terminals. However, the bank claims that the attack did not include the breach of customers' personal data, as reported in German media.
Many German customers are wondering how hackers managed to "clone" EMV-based debit cards, since chip-and-pin technology was claimed to be designed to withstand such attacks.
On the other hand, these attacks are very common and have been happening for a few years. Also, in Brazil, local gangs have a reputation for being able to “clone” EMV cards. In fact, they have become very sophisticated in these attacks.
According to researcher Manuel Pintag, Brazil and Mexico are “the largest EMV card cloning laboratories.”.
Criminal groups often advertise tools for creating fully functional clones for EMV cards.
To clone a modern chip-and-PIN card, criminals need a copy of the magnetic stripe of a legitimate EMV card.
To get the copy, they use special devices that are placed in ATM or POS devices.
Mastercard said it is still investigating the incident. A Mastercard spokesperson said neither the network nor its EMV technology was compromised.
Card cloning attacks have become increasingly common in recent years and are a major problem for banks around the world.
