Petrol stations, ticket distributors … What is “Shimming”, this credit card that rages in the Paris region?

National police recently revealed a matter of the genre in Vitry-sur-Seine, in Val-de-Marne. Individuals that acted from Spain have trapped card readers to hack victims’ banking data. A scam that remains rare but difficult to detect.

After “skimming”, here is “Shimming”. This is the last card with the credit card identified in Ile-de-France. In a message posted on June 30 on xthe national police indeed indicate that “four individuals who raged in Vitry sur Seine (91) from Spain were arrested and € 9,000 seized “as part of a “New bank card scam”.

A case that The Parisian had also echoed. According to the police, this scam “”consists in trapping card readers to hack victims’ bank data “ AND “Petrol stations and ticket distributors are the most affected”.

In reality, this technique is not brand new specifies the Banque de France. Her Obersatory report of the security of means of payment in 2023 already reported it. It is indicated that: “The financial damage linked to this type of attack is estimated at 36,000 euros in 2023, down compared to 2022 (50,000 euros).“” The Banque de France specifies in Franceinfo that this scam is however far from the most widespread. “The technical complexity of the device still limits attacks”, Can we also read in this same report.

The deception was also identified by Signal-Arnaque, a sithe community dedicated to internet scams and which has communicated on social networks. “The principle is to lay on a card reader (for example on a ticket distributor or a fuel pump) a device that records data from all the cards that pass there”Explain the organization on x.

The process strongly resembles “skimming”, a well -known practice for years, but it is distinguished by a technological detail. “The difference is thin: where the skimming recorded the data via the magnetic track of the card, the shimming uses the card chip”Develop Signal-Arnacs. The Banque de France confirms and specifies that the equipment used is “A little similar to skimmer in its integration into an automaton” But this one “Intercepts data from the bank card chip, including its confidential code”.

Contacted, the national police indicate that this scam seems to be for the time being, still rare and concentrated in Paris and its small crown. However, the difficulty lies in the fact that it is very difficult for ordinary people to detect an anomaly on a card reader. Signal-Arnaques thus advocates regularly monitoring its bank accounts and “To report himself to his bank in the event of an abnormal movement”. The site recalls that banks, in this case, are required to reimburse you, “In accordance with the Monetary and Financial Code”.

The Banque de France recalls in passing that “COnly skimming or shimming, it is up to the managers of ticket and service stations to be vigilant against installation by third parties of fraudulent external device (reader, camera, keyboard, etc.). “