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Issued by FDIC
Security Spotlight: A BOLO alert, violent robberies, fraud and scams!
Welcome to the June issue of Security Spotlight
In this month's Security Spotlight, help Chicago track down a violent suspect and read about a skilled samaritan who helped take down a thief in Florida. Violent robberies, a safe deposit burglary, IRS scams, and more highlight the need for training to protect your staff, customers and their assets. Barry Thompson has a tip on safeguarding your mobile devices in the event of theft or loss.
In this Issue:
- Tips, Tidbits & Training
- Bank Robbery Update
- Security Shorts
- Hot Topics
- CrimeDex Report
- Blogging on Facebook
- Banker Store Security Products
Mobile Phone Safeguards
by Barry Thompson
A friend who was traveling abroad recently lost his mobile phone overseas. When showing local law enforcement where the smartphone's location was on a map, the authorities wished him luck but told him they wouldn't attempt to find it. The best safeguard to have on your mobile phone is a phone locator/remote erase app. This allows you to remotely wipe data from your device, and minimize unauthorized access to your data in the event of a theft or loss while traveling.
Bandage Bandit BOLO - A $10,000 reward is being offered by the FBI for information leading to the arrest of a man wanted for five Chicago bank robberies and a sixth attempted heist. Dubbed the "Bandage Bandit" by the FBI after hiding his identity behind a large gauze bandage covering his face during two of the robberies, the suspect is 45-49 years old, 6 feet tall with a medium build and dark complexion. He has worn a red or black jacket or gray hooded sweatshirt with a black knit or baseball cap, and in each of the heists has threatened to harm employees and customers if bank staff did not comply with his demands. Photos and locations of the heists are posted at BanditTrackerChicago.com. Anyone with information about the suspect should contact the FBI Chicago field office.
Skilled Samaritan 1, Busted Bandit 0 - While we never advocate civilian or bank employees' attempts to deter or stop a bank robber (and advise against it), Michael Jon Neubecker picked the wrong location at the wrong time when he held up the Grow Financial Federal Credit Union in Largo, FL. MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter Eric the "Ginja Ninja" Haritakis was in the right place at the right time at the credit union and witnessed Neubecker's robbery in progress. The highly skilled samaritan chased the suspect down as he ran out of the bank and hog tied him with duct tape until the police arrived. The Ginja Ninja didn't get a $10,000 reward but received kudos from his friends and family when he shared his triumphant rescue on Facebook with a post that summed up the incident: "WOW...Chasing down and Choking out the Bank Robber when your just trying to make a deposit will really wake you up!! Yep that just happened." <
Safety first - When a robber presents his demands with an alleged bomb threat, bank staff are trained not to question or argue with the suspect. In the case of a recent heist at a Chase branch in Palm Springs, when the man demanded money and told tellers he had a bomb, they gave him the cash and he fled the bank. The plastic bag he left behind contained only speakers, but the moral of the story is to always assume the bomb threat is real. At any time it could be, so the goal should always be to get the bandit out of the bank as quickly as possible to ensure the safety of staff and customers. Police are searching for the suspect in this heist and calling on the local public for help. Let's hope Crime Stoppers steps in and someone provides some clues.
Bank takeover robbery - Bank takeover robberies have been reportedly low in some areas this year, which is of little consolation to three people in West Los Angeles. On May 28th, OneWest Bank, which had been robbed before, was invaded by three masked men armed with handguns and tasers who immediately tased the bank security guard to remove him as a threat. In the course of the robbery, two others were pistol-whipped. We imagine how threatened the employees and customers felt during this violent incident. Despite reports that bank robberies are at a historic low in Los Angeles and incidents like this one are fortunately unusual, this case highlights the tough role security officers play in ensuring the safety of the bank's staff and customers.
No power to get away - On a lighter and more positive note, a man who carried plastic BB guns and donned a Spider-Man mask to pull off a heist at the Members 1st Federal Credit Union in Carlisle, PA was quickly apprehended when he tried to cross over the PA turnpike in traffic as he fled the crime on foot. Perhaps the superhuman powers of acrobatic leaps and web-slinging ability to travel rapidly from place to place didn't come with the mask. John Anderson, 22, was charged with two felony counts of robbery, theft, receiving stolen property and misdemeanor simple assault.
ISO ATM skimmers - If you are following our Facebook page, you've seen posts on the ongoing threats involving ATM skimming. In another incident from the Twin Cities area, three suspects were caught on camera putting ATM skimmers on at a bank ATM just before the bank opens, and retrieving them after the bank is closed. Bank staff and third-party vendors who service ATMs should always check the machine for tampering, not only at night but during business hours as well.
Hot Topics from the Bankers' Threads
The publicly accessible threads for Security have been more active recently and we encourage you to join in. There was one thread on Internal Audits assistance after a theft or robbery. Is Audit needed or helpful? Add your view in these threads - how would you handle these questions? This is a good use of the public threads so long as the talk isn't too specific. Read more and comment here. More of the discussions, for risk management and confidentiality reasons, have moved to the private area where we have a forum for bankers only on security topics, and another that allows law enforcement and regulators access.
We also have a "private" security forum for discussion of more private, sensitive topics. That is where security officers were discussing employees with access to customer PINs, ATM attacks, ATM servicing, open carry laws, and watch-list hits, and more!
To comment in Bankers' Threads you must be a registered user. You can register here. If using your bank email account, you will be given access to the private forums. The Private area is a group of forums under the heading "Private - Financial Institution Personnel Only." The Private forums do not include access to Bankers Hotline or Compliance Action, premium content areas that require paid subscriptions to those respective publications.
If you are already registered for the Threads, but don't yet have access to the private forums, using your bank email address send a request for access to brenda@bankersonline.com. Please verify that you do not yet have Private access. Once your registration request is approved, you can access the Private Security forum here.
Safe-deposit burglary and IRS scam alerts get busy month started
There were more than 250 CrimeDex alerts in our email inbox last month. We subscribe to all of them to get a sense of what's going on across the country. The month got started with an update on a brazen safe deposit box burglary that went on during branch hours while confederates of the burglars kept bank staff distracted in the lobby late on an April Saturday morning. The glass "day gate" to the vault was pried open and five boxes forcibly opened in 12 minutes, with significant amounts of jewelry, cash and other valuables stolen. That all took place in Florida. The next alert came from Wisconsin, but involved fraudsters who were apparently in California. They were part of an IRS scam that tricked some Badger-state residents into sending funds to pay bogus overdue tax bills via MoneyGram to the scammers in southern California.
A bank in Racine, Wisconsin, reported that a suspect had been ordering checks from CarouselChecks.com with the bank's routing number and non-existent account numbers. Some of the orders were apparently successful, and the suspect (or others working with her) had used checks on 24 non-existent accounts at the bank to defraud area merchants for relatively small amounts.
Closed-account checks on a Michigan credit union were reported being deposited by an area "card cracking" ring. In this case, two suspects were arrested and the credit union posted the alert to offer to put victims in touch with law enforcement.
Boise, Idaho, police circulated an alert concerning suspicious activity involving new bank accounts. Out-of-state driver's licenses were used to open the accounts, and several of the individuals claimed to have had ID theft issues when asked about the IDs. Some of the documents used to support the new local addresses of the individuals proved to have been fraudulent rental agreements. No fraudulent activity had been reported in the new accounts yet, but the patterns involved in the account openings were "of concern" to the department.
Throughout the month, we share news-related incidents on Facebook that can be informative examples for training employees on security issues and more. We've seen an increase in Likes on our Facebook page along with recent activity. We hope you'll visit and "Like" us on Facebook to catch up on the latest news. Here's a recap of May's posts:
- Read how Kearny Bank was proactive with their ATM maintenance and discovered a skimming device, reducing the losses, and making whole the customers whose accounts were impacted.
- In the post about the Longhorn Bandit who was robbing banks in Colorado and cased one, but didn't rob it, there are some lessons to be learned.
- Don't miss this one for your training files - "Yes, Director, kidnappings of executives and bank robberies do happen. Here is an example..."
- In another good training example, an employee's text messages linked her as a co-conspirator in a hold-up at her bank.
- And you'll find a link to the story of an unusual defense and a young man's motive for bank robbery.
- In a follow-up post, find out what happened to the Longhorn Bandit mentioned earlier.
- We rounded off the month with another skimming incident that resulted in a $120,000 loss to the bank – but not all at once. Read the story and consider what could have been done to reduce the losses in this case.