ATM fraud in the Middle East

The Middle East has been suffering a massive rise in ATM fraud over the past year. In 2006 alone, Dubai experienced US$700m (Dh2.57 billion) in losses because of credit fraud and in August 2008, the US Embassy were forced to warn citizens in the UAE that credit and debit card fraud had hit an unusually large number of its employees.

This is largely blamed on the continued use of magnetic stripe cards as opposed to Chip and PIN. Roll out in Europe has proven the effectiveness of EMV compliant cards, for example, when introduction in the UK in 2004 card fraud declined by 25% within two years .

However EMV roll-out in the Middle East now looks to be on the agenda following the highly publicised case of fraud in the UAE Central Bank this year, where fraudulent transactions totalled over Dh 100 million (US $27.2 million).

With this development, banks now have the opportunity to reassure their customers that action against fraud is being taken to re-establish customer trust and to competitively differentiate by employing a strong approach to security.

Issa Keshek