England fans are targeted by ATM scam in Germany as bankcards are swallowed by cash machines to be used elsewhere by fraud gangs

England fans in Düsseldorf are in acute danger of falling foul of a shocking cash machine scam police say is plaguing the city.

Compared with the UK, Germany is surprisingly backward on a digital level, and cash very much remains king.

Though the use of plastic has skyrocketed since corona, today Euro coins and notes remain the sole means of accepted payment in many pubs and cafes.

But England fans now turning to cash points in Duesseldorf are at extremely serious risk of losing their money by being scammed.

In an 'urgent warning' statement, a spokesperson for Düsseldorf police said: 'This week, there has been an increase in offences in connection with the manipulation of ATMs in the city of Düsseldorf.

'The victims stated that their EC cards had apparently been withdrawn from the ATMs used. 

'During these operations, the victims heard cracking noises and the display allegedly showed a fault: "This ATM will be ready to service you again in a moment".'

At this point, the innocent victims then had their cards swallowed by the machine, on the understanding that their cash request would soon be processed.

But instead of being returned, the bank cards were then stolen 'by unknown perpetrators and subsequently misused at the same ATM or at other locations'.

Düsseldorf police is now urging people not to use an ATM if they notice anything unusual.

And it says that if your card is swallowed, do not leave the location, rather take out your mobile phone and call the bank or the police.

Though famed for its engineering prowess, Germany is shockingly stuck in a digital Stone Age when it comes to payments.

A staggering 39 per cent of all transactions at point-of-sale in Germany were made with cold, hard cash in 2023, according to the European Central Bank (ECB).

While the rest of Europe moves towards a cashless society, Germany remains a cash-clutching digital dinosaur.

PYMNTS.com is a payments, commerce, and financial technology news platform. According to PYMNTS Intelligence's 2023 report 'How the World Does Digital,' Germany fared miserably in a study of 11 countries, with an average of 183 activity days per year.

An 'activity day' measures how often consumers engage in digital activities like banking, shopping, and entertainment.

The countries studied were the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Japan, Singapore, and Brazil.

Brazil led with 361 activity days, while Japan had the lowest at 127. Germany came second to last with its 183 activity days.

Even more eyebrow-raising is Germany's embarrassing rank in the EU's Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), where it limps in at 21st place out of 28 countries for digital public services.

Wifi can be infuriatingly patchy in Germany, and local governments are stuck in the past, with many still even clinging to fax machines and suffering from poor broadband coverage.

More shockingly still, just at a time when it is in desperate need of government investment in this area, instead of increasing funds, the federal government has instead slashed it.

The 2024 overall federal budget, which stands at €476 billion, allocates a whopping €70.5 billion to investment.

And yet here the government has opted to spend a mere €3.3 million on administrative digitalisation.

And worse still, this has been drastically reduced from €377 million it assigned for administrative digitalisation in 2023.