In the face of the recession, thieves are employing more innovative schemes to create economic opportunity for themselves. Most ATM thefts involve criminals driving a vehicle into a storefront where the ATM is ripped from its mooring and hauled away. Others involve criminals simply driving up to a freestanding exterior ATM and tearing the terminal from its base. It is a labor intensive crime but the savvy ATM ISO has the opportunity to make a fast getaway more challenging and to stave off the ATM processing losses a theft of this magnitude represents.
Since 2009, San Diego, Atlanta and Dallas have been some of the hardest hit in a wave of ATM crimes. The larger news is that ATM fraud is affecting the nation’s largest cities as well as small town America, and it’s becoming one of the hottest crimes of the current economic slump. Alarmingly, the state of Texas experienced over one hundred ATM terminal thefts in 2010 alone, making it one of the states hardest hit by “smash and grab” ATM thefts.
With the crime wave still growing in many areas of the country, ATM ISOs and the ATM community at large is struggling to avoid being victimized. Most ATM thefts involve criminals driving a vehicle into a storefront where the terminal is ripped from its mooring and hauled away. Others involve criminals simply driving up to a freestanding exterior terminal and tearing the terminal from its base. It is a labor intensive crime, easily deterred by obstructions that make a fast getaway more challenging.
ATM Processing Protection Starts With Placement
Every ISO and IAD knows that a terminal is a valuable investment, and wants to protect that equipment from any damage or theft. One of the easiest ways to protect terminals from theft is with intelligent placement. Evaluate your entire ATM portfolio as well as any new terminal installations for these three key factors for preventing ATM business loss from terminal theft:
- Position ATM equipment behind protective bollards or other traffic barricades
- In storefront locations, position ATM machines behind solid walls
- Choose well lit, high-traffic, public space
- Install obvious security features
Technology For ATM Fraud Prevention
ATM alarms are motion activated. If a terminal with an alarm is moved, tilted, or the casing is forcefully impacted, the alarm will sound for up to 10 hours, or until turned off. Only big movements will set off the alarm, so accidentally tripping the alarm is not ever a real threat.
“Security Mounting” systems also deter criminals. These security mounting systems prevent smash and grab thefts by absorbing the shock of any force against the ATM machine. If you’re an ATM ISO or IAD, it’s important to always keep in mind thieves are opportunists, looking for a big payoff from a single job. The more difficult it is to smash, the less attractive the ATM is to grab.
The bottom-line for the concerned ISO is that creative criminals will always look for ways to score the most money for the least amount of effort. Because ATMs represent potentially high jackpots, making your terminals look like complicated marks should be a high priority. The savvy ATM ISO or IAD is two steps ahead with intelligent placement and preventative technology, adding to the risk of an thief being caught in the act.
Do Your ATMs Make Less Attractive Targets?
To make snatching an ATM difficult, often an ATM ISO or IAD will use protective bollards for exterior ATM machines or strategic placement of interior storefront ATM equipment—all in the name of making it much less likely that criminals target those properties. Other physical deterrents include good lighting, high traffic, and obvious security cameras are all deterrents. When it comes to criminal threats to your ATM online portfolio, the likelier they are to be spotted in the act, the less likely thieves are to target the terminal.
In spite of employer smarter security measures, the savvy ATM ISO still needs to be aware that bold criminals still exist. With cases like the hospital heist in Philadelphia, physical barriers and visibility perhaps proved even more tempting to these thieves: dressed as repairmen, the crew carried off the ATM heist by simply clipping the wires, freeing the terminal to wheel away on a dolly, right out the front door without a word from anyone. In this bold case, only anti-theft technology would have stopped this crime before it started.
Look to Switch Commerce for industry leading advice to manage ATM and terminal management tools. Switch Commerce also serves merchants’ payment processing needs with well-priced credit and debit card processing.