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A 29-year-old man allegedly part of a group that blew up at least 15 ATMs in Germany managed to kill himself and injure an associate last year by filming a video tutorial on how to do it explode ATMs, according to European authorities.
Europol in A declaration this week, Dutch and German police arrested a total of nine suspects in an 18-month investigation that ended earlier this week.
The investigation began in February 2020, according to Europol, after authorities in Osnabrück, Germany took note of unusual orders for ATMs from a German supplier of ATMs.
“Special surveillance measures were put in place, which led investigators to Utrecht, the Netherlands, where a 29-year-old individual and his 24-year-old accomplice ran an illegal training center for vending machine attacks. tickets, “said Europol. “There, the pair would order different models of ATMs and record tutorials on how to blow them up most efficiently.”
These tutorials were would have intended for presentation in person to like-minded people, possibly out of fear that posting the videos on the internet will attract the wrong kind of attention.
In September 2020, the couple were shooting one of these tutorials when things didn’t go as planned. The 29-year-old man died and the 24-year-old was injured and taken into custody, according to Agence France Presse.
A report in the NLTimes Last year, a 29-year-old man was killed in an explosion in Utrecht on September 5, 2020. He does not explain the source of the explosion and does not mention any other survivors.
The investigation revealed links between the makers of bombshell videos and more than 15 attacks on ATMs in Germany, estimated at 2.15 million euros (~ $ 2.5 million) in losses of funds and property damage.
By April 2021, the Dutch and German authorities had set up a joint investigation team, with funding from Eurojust, and Europol participated in a separate operational working group to coordinate the sharing of resources between the two countries.
The investigation ended on September 28, 2021, when a search of seven homes in Utrecht, Amsterdam and The Hague in the Netherlands led to the arrest of three suspects. These three are now awaiting their extradition to Germany. The other six detainees have been arrested over the past year.
In April, the European Association for Secure Transactions (EAST) released a report on ATM-related crime in 2020. Overall, ATM-related crime in the EU has declined due to social consequences of COVID-19.
“While it is good news to see such a large drop in terminal fraud attacks, there are concerns that explosive ATM attacks have only decreased by 6% and associated losses have increased by 39. %, â€Said EAST Executive Director Lachlan. Gunn in A declaration. “The average cash loss for a solid explosive attack is estimated at € 28,218, and the collateral damage to equipment and buildings can be significant.”
There were 923 explosive attacks on ATMs in the EU last year, up from 977 in 2019.
However, malware and logical attacks against ATMs increased by 44% over the same period (from 35 to 129). All of these attacks were “black box attacks” in which unauthorized equipment sends orders to empty cash machines or “jackpots”. ®
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