Rabobank’s decision to stop customers using their bank cards to withdraw money from cash machines outside Europe has resulted in an 85% drop in skimming incidents, the bank said on Friday.

The automatic blockade means criminals cannot use fake cards outside the EU which they have made using information captured by hidden cameras and scanners.
Over the past month, this has prevented the loss of €1.2m, the bank said.
Since the ban was introduced at the beginning of June, customers have to ask to be allowed to withdraw money from cash point machines outside Europe.
‘The amount of damage has gone down sharply and we hope this trend will continue,’ the bank said.