For years, it was a common occurrence: Dutch bandits would drive into Germany and in the middle of the night blow up ATMs, take money, and speed home via the Autobahn.
Now, a strong blow is bearing fruit.
Attacks on ATMs have fallen to 115 so far this year, less than a quarter of their peak of more than one a day, 496 in 2022, according to German police data provided to Reuters.
The multiple explosions have terrorized residents across Germany, where – unlike other countries – cash remains the preferred currency and ATMs are often built directly beneath apartments and in pedestrian areas. Damage has reached more than 400 million euros since 2020.
“The threat level in Germany remains high, particularly due to the use of extremely dangerous explosives,” according to a September report from Germany’s top crime fighters, the federal criminal police, or BKA.
Now the gangs are going a little further in Austria, where the use of cash is still widespread.
Attacks in Austria have doubled this year, and the BKA told Reuters this is likely the result of “a squeeze effect from Germany”.
Dutch police suspect hundreds of men are responsible, working in developing groups as new recruits replace those who are captured.
Germans still want to use cash
Underscoring the shift to Austria, prosecutors said a Dutchman who stole 220,000 euros from ATMs near Frankfurt in 2023 blew up ATMs in Vienna earlier this year, managing to take 89,000 euros in loot and causing 1.5 million euros in damage.
The person was detained under a European arrest warrant and is awaiting trial.
Over the years, this modern version of the old bank robbery was born from two distinctly German factors, investigators say.
First, Germany is a wealthy nation whose residents like to use cash for purchases, which means ATMs are plentiful. And second, Germany’s famous network of highways makes getting around fast.
German banks have also invested more than 300 million euros in security in recent years, according to the latest figures from Deutsche Kreditiewirtschaft, an umbrella group for financial institutions. The investments are being considered a drop in the ocean for a sector where combined profits reach 50 billion euros a year.
The measures include mechanisms that, among other things, emit dyes that render banknotes unusable. In addition, many banks now close the areas near ATMs at night.
But the thefts are less sophisticated than many online scams, which law enforcement in Germany and around the globe are facing on the rise.
Last week, Germany announced arrests after a year-long investigation into fraudsters who – with the help of German payment providers, fake websites and shell companies – stole more than 300 million euros from people in 193 countries.
Cases fall in Germany, rise in Austria
Cases have fallen this year in all but three of Germany’s 16 states, according to police statistics.
The state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which borders the Netherlands, was one of the hardest hit in 2022 with 182 attacks. So far this year, they have fallen to just 25.
Despite the decline, collateral damage is still considerable, police there say, with an attack in January near Cologne causing 1.8 million euros in damage.
Police attribute the finding and arrest of the suspects to cooperation with Dutch investigators. Most of the perpetrators were Dutch, but some were German, French and Moldovan.
Police in the state of Hesse, where Germany’s banking capital, Frankfurt, is located, have created a tool that provides the probability of hitting an ATM, based on power and other variables.
Last week, Germany’s parliament voted to increase the prison sentence for such an attack.
In Austria, cases have risen to 29 so far this year, up from 13 in 2024, according to figures from the interior ministry, which said it first discovered the Dutch gangs in 2023.
Austrians lead the eurozone in their preference for paying with cash, a 2024 European Central Bank study has found, meaning the country has plenty of ATMs.
Police there have said they are cooperating closely with police in Germany and the Netherlands.
