Alert: ’Skimming’ Scam Targets Moroccan ATMs, Banking Data at Risk

Banking supervision is alerting to the resurgence of ATM scams. To this end, a note has been sent to all agencies in the country, after the discovery, by the Marrakech police services on December 13 and 15, of a batch of so-called "skimming" devices, placed on various ATMs (ATMs) of certain bank branches.

A technique that consists of duplicating the banking data stored on the magnetic stripe of the card, and sometimes even the four-digit secret code, thanks to a camera or a hijacked numeric keypad, skimming allows, once the card is inserted, to "capture the encoded data on the magnetic track of credit cards", the note states.

According to the General Directorate of National Security, the persons involved were aiming to hack the monetary data of users of the targeted ATMs, with a view to encoding them on blank magnetic stripe cards, and using them to make fraudulent withdrawals. Once the card is cloned, the hacker can use it or resell it, the note states.

Faced with these cases of operations, the DGSN has called on bank branches to "immediately inform the nearest police station".