UTC HIT BY FRAUD AGAIN

THE TRINIDAD and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation (UTC) has been hit again by individuals stealing the identification of unit-holders and taking over their accounts.  The thieves struck the account of one unit- holder on three separate occasions in September, reliable sources told Newsday yesterday. As a consequence, the UTC has called in the Fraud Squad but up to late evening no arrests had been made in connection with the latest fraud, the second of its kind to hit the company in just over a year. Sources said on three separate occasions the fraudster went to the Unit Trust and presented an identification card which was used to get cheques.  The ID cards, which were described as “very good,” bore the photograph of the thief, sources said.

The first cheque totalled $40,000, a second was for $275,000 with the third one being for $375,000.  The thief, according to sources, then went to the Inter Commercial Bank to deposit the cheques into their account. Some of the cheques were encashed, while others were stopped. A senior member at the UTC confirmed the identity theft/account takeover fraud at the company and stated that the ID card presented by the fraudster was very good. They said the question is how does the perpetrator(s) get the information from the unit-holder’s account.  The official, however, strongly denied that the information was provided by any of its employees, explaining that the fraudsters target people’s garbage and mailboxes.

The UTC official added that they were able to stop some of the cheques from being encashed before they suffered any significant losses. “We were able to recover some of the funds,” the UTC official stated, sending out a warning to unit- holders to be careful how they dispose of their financial statements. “People need to be more vigilant with their financial statements,” the official said, adding that holders could either shred or dispose of their statements where they cannot be accessed. In May 2002, the UTC suffered a similar incident when two of its unit-holders suffered a near $5 million loss through the identity theft/account takeover.  Investigations are continuing.