FICO has released data showing which states were hardest hit by ATM compromises across the US last year. FICO Labs data also showed that 20 states saw an increase in credit card fraud, including several along the East Coast.

Forty six per cent of all card skimming reported by the FICO Card Alert Service occurred at bank ATMs, while 36 per cent took place at retail PoS terminals, and 18 per cent occurred at white-label ATMs – machines not operated by banks. These results were significantly different from the data observed in 2011, when 79 per cent of skimming incidents occurred at PoS terminals, due largely to a multi-state crime ring that was identified by the aforementioned service.

“The prevailing fraud scheme has been ATM skimming because that only requires a PIN, not a signature – a finding that is clearly reflected in the map,” says John Buzzard, who manages the FICO Card Alert Service, which analyses more than 65 per cent of all ATM transactions in the US each day. “Skimming at bank-owned ATMs and white label/off-premise ATMs increased in 2012, and California, Florida and the Northeast were hit particularly hard.”

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