Lots of comments here about magstripes and the failure of the US banks to get rid of them. Funny thing about that is this is a Canadian article about this happening in Canada, and shimmers actually steal data off chips - not magstripes.
Why would they do this? The assumption is that the thieves plan to use the chip data to create fake magstripe card or make online purchases somewhere that the CVV is not checked. Not checking the CVV is a complete failure, and apparently for once it's not a US failure (unless the thieves are targeting tourists??).
The article is lite on specifics, but my Canadian chip card will normally reject stripe transactions in Canada (or it did the last time I saw a stripe machine, several years ago), but happily perform them when I cross into the US.
So one possibility is that they're stealing magstripe data off the chips for cloning and use in the US banking system.
Why would they do this? The assumption is that the thieves plan to use the chip data to create fake magstripe card or make online purchases somewhere that the CVV is not checked. Not checking the CVV is a complete failure, and apparently for once it's not a US failure (unless the thieves are targeting tourists??).