With over 600 reports of automated banking machine (ABM) fraud being made this year, the TTPS’ Fraud Squad is employing new tactics to quell the issue which has already led to millions of dollars in losses.
According to Ag. Supt of the Fraud Squad Curt Simon, at the weekly media briefing on Wednesday, revealed that “this year we have 662 reports of ABM card fraud and it’s amounting to over 4.5 million dollars in losses,” a figure similar to last year’s reported cases, he said.
Aside from ABM fraud, they have received some 555 reports of other incidents of fraud and, to date, have charged 59 people for the felony.
“While it may look like a small amount of individuals charged, the actual amount of cases laid though amounts to 140 cases laid. So you’d find that when we detect a fraud offence and arrest an individual, the individual would tend to be responsible not only for an individual incident,” he said.
In light of the staggering reports of ABM fraud, the Fraud Squad has set up a task force geared toward combating it.
“This is a very strategic move - we think - in trying to combat crime. Just up to last night we made a significant arrest I would say. We arrested eight persons, seven of them being Venezuelans and one local...these persons were observed tampering with an ABM machine in a popular mall in East Trinidad. From the arrest and search of premises and so on, we were able to get a number of what appears to be counterfeit ABM cards amounting to over 100 of them,” he said.
In addition to this, the Fraud Squad has also brought on 17 officers to join them in fighting crime.
“They have undergone a period of about three months - classroom and practical. As we speak they are in a classroom session and we are preparing the officers to join in the prevention and the fight against crime, mainly of course in our arena - fraud,” he said.
In addition to these, Simon said they also conduct training with stakeholders who may be susceptible to fraud such as insurance companies; teaching them how to identify and combat cases of fraud.
Simon advised members of the public to exercise due diligence to reduce the chances of becoming victims of ABM fraud. He encouraged citizens to engage in practices such as observing their surroundings, not letting their cards out of their sight and abstaining from revealing personal information such as card pins to anyone - whether in person or online.