Thieves Steal $12.7 Million from Convenience Store ATMs

Coordinated attack took less than three hours at convenience stores across Japan.

May 24, 2016

KYODO – The Japan Times reports that thieves drained a total of ¥1.4 billion ($12.7 million U.S.) from ATMs at Japanese convenience stores, a coordinated effort using counterfeit credit cards containing account information stolen from a South African bank.

According to investigators, it’s believed that an international organization stole the millions in cash on May 15 in Tokyo and 16 other areas with more than 100 thieves carrying out the attack, which took about three hours. The news source adds that in each of the approximately 14,000 transactions, the maximum amount of ¥100,000 ($900 U.S.) was withdrawn from ATMs using the fake credit cards.

The Deccan Chronicle notes that Standard Bank in South Africa acknowledged the heist and put its losses at around $19 million, saying it’s a victim of a very sophisticated and coordinated fraud incident. “This involved the withdrawal of cash using a small number of fictitious cards at various ATMs in Japan,” the bank said in a statement.

The news source adds that similar robberies have occurred in recent years, including a pair of heists totaling about $45 million from a group of cyber thieves who were able to disable withdrawal limits on ATMs around the world.

“The lengths thieves will go to steal consumer information is astonishing,” said Gray Taylor, executive director of Conexxus. “What is also astonishing is that the sudden and extensive foreign activity it experienced during this fraud did not trigger alerts that would have shut down the theft.”

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