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In this Issue:
 by Barry Thompson, BOL Guru
Featured Security Webinars Suspicious Activity Report: Form Completion - November 12 by Ken Golliher
Check Fraud: Protecting Your Bank and Its Customers - November 17 by Jeremy Peterson and John Burnett
Security Products in the BankerStore  Robbery Prevention – "NO HAT" Signs NOW AVAILABLE in STATIC CLING  Robbery Suppression & Apprehension: The SAFECATCH Strategy  Robbery Prevention, Response & Aftermath |
Welcome to the November Issue of Security Spotlight Almost everyone has an idea in his mind of what a bank robber should look like. Throw that out the window and read about "Gramps", who has already robbed four banks, trailing his oxygen tank behind him. Walk in the shoes of a Security Officer for a day as noted in the Security Shorts. Check out Barry Thompson's Tip for H1N1 protection in your financial institution. Not All Little Old Men are Sweet!  Age and an oxygen tank were not a hindrance to an elderly bank robber in California, who has robbed four banks since August 28. The FBI has released surveillance photos of the robber who is a white male probably in his 70s, around 5 feet 9 inches tall, with white hair.  In one of the robberies he wore a blue baseball cap, in another a black hat, a sport coat and dark sunglasses, and in yet another he wore a white beret, an argyle sweater and a brown sports jacket. In some of the robberies, he carries an oxygen tank in a black bag with tubes from the oxygen tank in his nose. In most of the robberies he presents the teller with a note stating that he has a gun, however in the robbery of a BofA in Rancho Santa Fe, he pulled out a gun and demanded cash.Bank robberies are frightening enough, but weapons and threats only add to the fear and stress of bank employees. Of the 99 bank robbery suspects on our Unknown Robbers page, thirty displayed guns, one had a knife, and another in East Bridgewater, MA left a white paper bag with a box inside and claimed it was a bomb. The bank was evacuated, neighboring schools were notified and students were kept indoors during recess. The area was closed to traffic. The bomb squad used a robot and an x-ray machine and determined that the box only contained baby powder. This did not stop neighboring business owners from feeling worried about their safety or the safety of the bank tellers. What procedures does your bank have in place in the event of a violent robbery or bomb threat? Check out BOL's Security Tools, including the Bomb Threat Procedures.
Be sure to frequently check our Bank Robbery page for photos and information on all the latest robbery suspects. Protect your institution by posting signage prohibiting hats, hoods and sunglasses. The effectiveness of this simple sign on your door is unsurpassed. Available now in two different designs in static cling format in the Banker Store.  A Day in the Life of a Security Officer The Kroll Annual Global Fraud Report surveyed ten industries and found that the largest spike in losses has been with the financial services industry. Companies have lost an average of more than $15 million over the last three years.  The Security Officer is often thought of when it comes to the physical security of cash, but banks see losses in many areas, and many of these end up on the desk of the Security Officer at the end of the day. ATM fraud is increasing worldwide. In Europe, the Single Euro Payments Area has recorded a 640 percent increase in "trapping" debit cards. There also seems to be an increase in the U.S. of ATM fraud. This can originate as a card trap or skimming, to name just two methods. Earlier this month, Citibank discovered an ATM at a Manhattan Beach, California branch had been fitted with a skimming device, and estimated that at least 50 customers had lost a total of $70,000. In Nashville, metro police are looking for thieves who stole $85,000 and captured information on nearly five hundred ATM cards.
There have been some success stories in this area of fraudulent activity. In Leon County, Florida, two ring leaders, Reginald Voltaire and Junior Doguer, were arrested and charged with more than eighty crimes, each pertaining to skimming operations at two Tallahassee Circle K stores. Three store managers were also involved. The dollar amounts stolen are not yet known. Police were able to determine that the customers reporting losses all had their cards in their possession, and that the thefts were via PIN-based transactions. They then narrowed down the common transfers to these two stores. Social networking and the use of common logon credentials has also caught the interest of the Security Officer. You'll have to work with Operations and IT to try and ensure that your customers are using unique and strong logon credentials for online banking. Hacking into a Facebook account is one thing, but using the same username and password to get into Internet banking is another. Similarly, when a trojan is installed on a social networking scam, financial transactions are often the key target. It is "where the money is" as Willie Sutton used to say. Union State Bank in southern Kansas notified the police that customers were receiving a pre-recorded telephone call telling them their Visa debit card was being deactivated because of suspicious activity. This is a ploy for information as the customer is asked to enter a card number, expiration date and security code into the phone. The real suspicious activity would likely start immediately after a response. The Hawaii Central Credit Union is warning their customers of a similar scam. Solomon Dwek was a well-respected real estate mogul with a $300 million empire in seven states. Now he is an admitted felon facing eleven years in prison. In one of his escapades, Dwek deposited a phony $25.2 million check to his PNC account. The deposit was credited to his account before the check cleared, and he wired $22.2 million the next day. One day later, he tried the same scam which was rejected after PNC had already lost millions. The crimes the Security Officer has to deal with are diverse. Some, such as some of the ATM skimming, seems to be initiated by Eastern Europeans who come and go or operate over the Internet from their home countries. Solomon Dwek and much of the white collar and real estate crime originates from "good customers", who may have been doing business with the bank for years.
With crimes increasing, and different areas of crime increasing, you don't need us to tell you that training for the Security Officer, that department, and all the bank's employees has to increase. This is difficult when budgets are decreasing. This is why you need to find reliable and timely information to help you do your job. We believe BankersOnline.com is a big part of that.
In the four months leading up to October, the average number of counterfeits being reported was twenty-three. October was a low month with only twelve items being reported. One report of a counterfeit was submitted by the OCC with the remaining eleven coming from the FDIC. With rare exceptions such as an incorrect routing number, "Treasurer's Check" instead of "Cashier's Check" or the same remitter and dollar amount on all the suspect items, these counterfeit items are very convincing. What can you do? In addition to training employees to look for security features at the teller window, they need to look for counterfeit reports daily. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Train employees to look at the BOL Alerts & Counterfeits page each morning and to start their day armed with the most current list of items that other banks are reporting as problems.
CrimeDex: Another Month of Valuable Alerts This month's CrimeDex alerts have ranged from welcome news that bank robbery and ID theft suspects and three alleged members of a counterfeiting ring had been arrested, to an alert about a suspect wanted in connection with a multi-million dollar real estate scam, to a series of bank robbery alerts with surveillance photos. We were struck by the clarity of the bank robbery pictures and the obviously better shots taken with eye-level cameras. BOL CrimeDex subscribers who are fighting to have overhead equipment augmented so that eye-level shots can be obtained have some terrific examples of shots from both perspectives to argue their case. BOL CrimeDex subscribers receive alerts like these and others whenever alerts are posted to the CrimeDex site. The alerts they receive can be filtered by region or state. Subscribers can also post their own alerts to other members of the expanding CrimeDex community, and selectively post them by state and/or region. Check it out at BOL Crimedex! 
Your Security Officer has to worry about a lot of issues, vault security, opening and closing procedures, counterfeit checks, theft of currency and lots more. One thing that may be pushed to the back burner is the trash, or more specifically, the shred. How much risk is there? Read this post: "Are you securing what thieves want to steal?" in the BOL Security Blog. In the Alerts & Counterfeits area above we promoted using a good offense as a means of defending against losses. The FDIC is following this same train of thought. If you missed their Security Alert, you can find the highlights of the increasing work at home scams that lead to your customers becoming money mules. The details are in the Anti-Phishing Blog. | |||||
This webinar focuses on how depositary institutions are to complete the Suspicious Activity Report (SAR), Form TD F 90-22.47. SAR filing is required in regulations promulgated by the federal functional bank regulatory agencies as well as regulations interpreting the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) issued by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Each time there is a presentment of a fraudulent check, potential problems for 1) the bank of first deposit, 2) the customer presenting the check, and 3) the paying bank can occur. Knowing how to detect and reject bogus checks can protect both your bank and your customers. Knowing how to handle fraudulent checks that make it "under the radar" can save your bank from significant losses.
Those of you involved in BSA/AML compliance should take a look at the | Support the vendors who support BOL!
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