Photo at the ATM. A recording of your deposit or withdrawal just in case

The Ministry of Justice wants to add a new obligation to the Payment Services Act. The new topic has already been initially discussed with the Ministry of Finance.

Banks and owners of ATMs and cash deposit machines would be obliged to register the image of customers during transactions. The recordings would be stored for 90 days. Who should have access to them? As many as several services.

Tough love for cash. More and more crimes

It is impossible to place a guard at every ATM or cash deposit machine, but it would be very useful! Official statistics of the National Bank of Poland for the first quarter of 2026 confirm that the value of fraudulent transactions increased by as much as 46.8%. quarter to quarter.

Criminals are using increasingly sophisticated methods to steal card details or simply cash. Skimming, card trapping (Lebanese loop), miniature PIN recording cameras, keyboard overlays are already part of the everyday life of banks and device operators.

The ATM sector is affected by both attacks on individuals and organized criminal activities. As a result of a spectacular, mass skimming campaign targeting Santander Bank customers, criminals by installing ATM covers were able to steal a total of PLN 2.2 million from the accounts of 490 customers!

They put on a fake hotline number, which the fake advisor uses to obtain the PIN code. They install fake magnetic readers that copy data from cards. They can also massively recruit the so-called “selectors”, i.e. people who immediately withdraw cash extorted from victims using social engineering methods from ATMs across Europe – using Blik codes. Thieves clean individual accounts for amounts ranging from several to several thousand zlotys during one session.

These sums feed the underground, which turns in millions of zlotys, and are difficult to recover, hence the new initiative.

Penalties for covering your face. Several services will benefit from the recording

If something is to change for the better, ATM withdrawals can no longer be anonymous. According to the Bankier.pl portal, there will soon be a regulation regarding user behavior when using the device.

“Whoever, while using payment services using an ATM or cash deposit machine, covers his face or part of his face in a way that prevents identification, shall be subject to a fine or a reprimand” – this is a proposal for a new provision that is intended to directly affect the so-called “mules”, i.e. people withdrawing cash from crime.

Several services are to have legal access to ATM recordings: the police, the prosecutor’s office, the National Tax Administration and officers of the Central Anticorruption Bureau.