Con men take $54M

CON ARTISTS were able to fleece $54 million from their victims last year through credit card fraud, skimming, ATM fraud and general stealing of money from companies and employers. As of yesterday, there were 229 reports of fraud so far for 2004. Fraud Squad police officer now handles an average of 40 fraud cases, and the Fraud Squad receives four reports of fraud daily. These startling statistics were provided by Sgt Raphael Romany yesterday during a Fraud Awareness Seminar organised by the Institute of Banking and Finance of Trinidad and Tobago. Sgt Romany, a member of the Fraud Squad, said there were 1,100 reports of fraud last year.

He admitted that fraud has increased drastically over the past two years, and officers will welcome additional manpower and up-to-date technology to assist them in their investigations. He said a Fraud Squad office has been established in South Trinidad to deal with the increase in reports in that part of the country. In addition, training programmes have been introduced to train officers. However, there are still many areas of need. At present, there are only two persons trained in detecting fraud through handwriting and signatures. Cpl Chandra Mungroo, another member of the Fraud Squad, said 80 percent of the workforce in Trinidad and Tobago are potential fraudsters and they do not come from any particular ethnic background. Mungroo referred to instances where fraudsters use a device known as a “Lebanese Loop” to trap bank cards in ATM machines so that the unsuspecting card holder thinks the machine has captured the card.

The fraudster will offer the use of his or her cell phone to contact a bogus number and the card owner will then be asked his or her pin number. The card owner will then be told to contact the bank the next day. By the next day when a check is made by the card holder all his or her money is stolen.  Mungroo advised that cards be treated as cash and warned card holders never to reveal their pin numbers to anyone. Darren Carmichael, corporate security manager at Republic Bank,  and representative of the InterBank Fraud Awareness Committee, said 172,000 persons in Trinidad and Tobago are in possession of credit cards.