Thursday, May 24, 2007
Their Credit Card, Your Account
Credit card scams aren't new, but this one has an interesting twist. On May 22, 2007, 11 people were arrested by the Mesa, AZ police. Dariusz "Derek" Mitrega was the ring leader.
What is interesting is that these felons stole personal information and encoded that information onto their own credit cards. The signature on the back of the card was the thief's, the name on the card was theirs and they could have produced additional identification proving the card was theirs. But if the clerk were to compare the receipt against the credit card, they'd see the account number being charged was different than that on the card.
There were reportedly at least 100 purchases made exceeding $500,000. Purchases were made at Safeway, Fry's, Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot and more. They purchased big ticket electronics and Visa gift cards. The latter were preferred because of their versatility. Some of the items purchased were sold on eBay while others were traded for methamphetamines.
The group will be facing charges of conspiracy, forgery, money laundering, identity theft and possession of dangerous drugs, officials said.
If your teller does a cash advance, do they compare the last four digits of the card to the receipt?
Credit card scams aren't new, but this one has an interesting twist. On May 22, 2007, 11 people were arrested by the Mesa, AZ police. Dariusz "Derek" Mitrega was the ring leader.
What is interesting is that these felons stole personal information and encoded that information onto their own credit cards. The signature on the back of the card was the thief's, the name on the card was theirs and they could have produced additional identification proving the card was theirs. But if the clerk were to compare the receipt against the credit card, they'd see the account number being charged was different than that on the card.
There were reportedly at least 100 purchases made exceeding $500,000. Purchases were made at Safeway, Fry's, Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot and more. They purchased big ticket electronics and Visa gift cards. The latter were preferred because of their versatility. Some of the items purchased were sold on eBay while others were traded for methamphetamines.
The group will be facing charges of conspiracy, forgery, money laundering, identity theft and possession of dangerous drugs, officials said.
If your teller does a cash advance, do they compare the last four digits of the card to the receipt?
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
New Scam -- Sending Counterfeit Checks Directly to Banks!
The fraudulent official check scam artists are trying new techniques to separate honest people from their money. One of the latest scams is cleverly designed to look like a check being sent directly to a financial institution by the FDIC, for deposit to a legitimate customer's account!
According to an FDIC May 1, 2007, alert (SA-112-2007), banks are receiving bogus letters that claim to be from the FDIC (but aren't), instructing the banks to credit official bank checks (which turn out to be counterfeit) to a customer's deposit account.
You should alert your mailroom and/or mail deposit staff to this scam, and instruct them --
Because this scam reveals that a depositor's account information is probably in the wrong hands, you should advise your customer of the problem, and strongly suggest that affected accounts be closed out and new accounts be opened.
The fraudulent official check scam artists are trying new techniques to separate honest people from their money. One of the latest scams is cleverly designed to look like a check being sent directly to a financial institution by the FDIC, for deposit to a legitimate customer's account!
According to an FDIC May 1, 2007, alert (SA-112-2007), banks are receiving bogus letters that claim to be from the FDIC (but aren't), instructing the banks to credit official bank checks (which turn out to be counterfeit) to a customer's deposit account.
You should alert your mailroom and/or mail deposit staff to this scam, and instruct them --
- Not to deposit the checks to anyone's account.
- To deliver the entire mailing (envelope, instructions and checks) to your security department for further handling.
Because this scam reveals that a depositor's account information is probably in the wrong hands, you should advise your customer of the problem, and strongly suggest that affected accounts be closed out and new accounts be opened.
