According to euro kartensysteme, the figure for the previous year was 17 million euros. Euro kartensysteme is an institution of the german banking industry that takes care of security management for payment cards.
The banking associations explain the decline by the fact that EMV security technology is increasingly being used outside europe as well. This makes it more difficult for criminals to use duplicate cards to withdraw money or make purchases.
Nevertheless, according to dpa information, 251 atms were manipulated from january to the end of june, almost as many as in the same period of the previous year (253), in order to steal card data and secret numbers (PIN) ("skimming").
If you add the manipulated door openers of bank branches and statement printers, the number of such attacks rises to 259. The regional focus was once again on north rhine-westphalia, the state with the largest population, with 90 cases, followed by baden-wurttemberg (50 cases), berlin (25), and hesse (23).
EMV cards have a kind of mini-computer: the data record is encrypted, and the card is checked for authenticity when used. "With the full implementation of EMV chip technology in the girocard system, the card-issuing credit institutions in germany have achieved significantly greater security," said a spokeswoman for the german savings bank and giro association (DSGV).
The association is currently the mouthpiece of the german banking industry (DK), the umbrella organization of banking associations.
"The german banking industry will continue to work hard to ensure that the EMV chip standard is used as widely as possible around the world," said the spokeswoman. "Skimming" losses are usually borne by the banks.
According to euro kartensysteme, criminals who stole account data in germany used it in the first six months of the current year primarily in countries that still rely on the outdated technology of magnetic strips: the u.S. (around 17 percent), colombia (around 13 percent), indonesia (a good 12 percent). In ecuador, thailand and brazil, too, fraudsters increasingly tried to use duplicate cards to withdraw money or make purchases.
According to industry figures, all 94 million girocards in circulation in germany are now equipped with an EMV chip.