Brazilian criminal gang clones Mastercard debit cards issued by German bank

Criminals have stolen the funds by cloning customer debit cards and then cashing out user funds across Brazil, despite the original cards being protected by EMV (chip-and-PIN) technology. To clone a modern chip-and-PIN card, criminals just need is a copy of a legitimate EMV cards magnetic strip. To obtain such information, criminals often rely on card sniffing devices installed on ATMs or POS terminals, which are also suspected as the primary sources for the debit cards used in the recent OLB incident.

The incident happened at the end of August 2019, and caught the eye of several cyber-security experts who noted the peculiarities of the thefts, which only involved Mastercard debit cards issued by German bank Oldenburgische Landesbank (OLB).

In a statement released following the incident, on Friday, August 27, 2019, the German bank said that only 2,000 customers were impacted, and that they already refunded all affected customers. Moreover, the bank also moved in to block all Mastercard debit cards following the attack, and is now in the process of issuing replacements.