Security Spotlight: Armed robbery gang, outdoor surveillance, spotlight on crimes, and more!

Welcome to the June Issue of the Security Spotlight

Barry Thompson's Monthly Security Tip

Parking Lot Surveillance
We regularly receive questions with regard to the placement of cameras in parking lots. If you have had violent incidents at a local branch, or if your office is located in a high crime area, you should consider installing surveillance cameras in your parking lot. This can also curb common nuisances this time of year, such as skateboarders or groups using parking lots for unapproved events.

Most Wanted: Armed and Dangerous

A band of brazen bandits...Banks in Southern California should be on the alert for a band of brazen bandits that are linked to at least 23 bank heists in the region over the last six months. The robbery spree began with a lone suspect passing a threatening demand note and has escalated to three armed suspects who engage in takeover-style robberies. The suspects pass threatening demand notes saying they will kill everybody in the bank if the staff does not comply. The same dark-rimmed hat has been worn by different suspects. Surveillance video shows the men pointing guns at bank tellers, shoving cash into a bag and hurtling counters to take money. The level of aggression the suspects are displaying appears to be escalating. Multiple agencies are investigating the robberies, including the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, several local police departments, and the FBI. A $5,000 reward is being offered by the FBI for information leading to the arrest and conviction of these violent criminals. Anyone with information about the case should contact the LAPD or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.

Check our Bank Robbery page for photos and information on the latest unknown bank bandits, many of them with sunglasses, hats or other head and facial coverings disguising their identity. Enforcing a no hats, hoods and sunglasses policy can help reduce the number of bandits who target your bank. Purchase No Hat Cling signs for all of your branches from the Banker Store.

Hot Topics from the Bankers Forums

Discussions in BankersOnline's public Security forum last month included a couple threads on the topic of an Affidavit of Forgery. If you have any helpful information to share, post a response. Check out those discussions and more. Check out those discussions and more here.

You'll find active discussions on more sensitive security topics in our "Private Security Forum," where bankers discuss issues out of public view. There's also a private forum that invites participation by bankers, regulators and members of law enforcement.

The private forums are the place for security officers to discuss topics like having employee pictures on a bank website, fax requests from the FBI and RFPA, when to activate an alarm, and ACH fraud with Capital One. If you're a registered user of BOL's Discussion Forums, but don't see the Private - Financial Institution Personnel Only forums near the top of the Forums list, use your bank email address to send an access request to brenda@bankersonline.com. Once your request is approved, you can access the Private Security forum here.

Please note: Our Private Forums do not include access to Bankers Hotline, or Compliance Action, which are premium content areas requiring paid subscriptions.

CrimeDex

Spotlight on May CrimeDex alerts

Almost 400 CrimeDex alerts passed through our inbox in May, providing a wealth of examples of the varied ways that crooks and scam artists fatten their wallets at the expense of businesses (including banks) and consumers all over the country. A California credit union started the month off with a request for "similars or any insight" into a member's receipt of over $83,000 in wire transfers to his account during the month of April, most of them described as "investments." Oritani Bank in New Jersey posted an alert advising other BOL CrimeDex members of counterfeit cashier's checks purporting to be issued by the bank. The checks were being used nationwide in Craigslist work-at-home and purchase scams, in amounts from $1,800 to $16,000.

Elk Grove, CA, police posted an alert with some high-quality surveillance images of a male suspect in a robbery of US Bank. One of the shots clearly shows how smart it can be to have cameras at eye level as part of a bank's surveillance pattern. A Morgantown, WV, bank learned from its mistakes and those of another area bank when it turned away a cash advance scam attempt. The bank had been hit with the same scam in February, paying out $4,000. In both incidents, the suspect had an accomplice on his cell phone playing the role of a "credit card representative" with a bogus authorization code for the transaction. As the old saying goes, "You can fool me once, ...." The day after the second attempt was posted, the bank posted an update that another CrimeDex user may have provided an ID for one of the suspects, after seeing the high-quality images posted by the Morgantown bank.

Our slimeballs-of-the-month award goes to the unidentified duo reported by Stamford, CT, police as responsible for recruiting homeless men who have identification, bringing them to Goodwill to get clean shirts, then driving them to a bank to cash counterfeit checks.

Get all the details at CrimeDex . The CrimeDex service is free to all financial institutions that are registered users of BankersOnline. If you have access to our private forums, read the "CrimeDex Service FREE" notice in the second thread of the "Private - FI Personnel Only" forum.

Facebook Blog

Throughout the month, we share news-related incidents on Facebook that can be informative examples for training employees on security issues and more. We appreciate the "Likes" and encourage you to share our page with your fellow Security Officers and bankers, and ask them to "Like" us so they too can stay updated on the latest news.

May was a busy month with plenty of news to share. In case you missed it, you can still check the following posts out:

• We started the month with a May 2nd post that sounds like a movie plot about a career woman in Kentucky who led a double life as a serial bank robber. On that same day, we linked to the story of a good Samaritan who was shot in the course of stopping a bank robber fleeing from the bank.
• Some criminals start young, but a 14-year-old robbing a bank? Read our May 3rd post for the details.
• On May 5th we shared a story about bank robbers in North Myrtle Beach who tried to escape after a high speed chase, with a second link to dash cam video from a police cruiser.
• The story about one bank, two branches, three days – and a fatal outcome for a bank robber in Chicago is posted on May 10th. Another story posted the same day of a heist in Alexandria contains a clear image of the female suspect that will hopefully lead to a quick identification and arrest.
• On May 12th read about a bank-trained lender who stole $40 million in Kentucky.
• Social media has been helping LEOs catch the bad guys. Our May 13th post is another success story about police posting a photo of a robbery suspect on social media, and getting the identification they needed as a result. Also on the 13th was another post with a win for LEOs when a bank robber was fleeing the scene of his crime and met a police officer just 50 feet from the bank.
• For an incident that you just can't make up, read our May 18th post about a drive-thru robbery with kids in the car that the babysitter claimed were in danger if the teller didn't comply with her demands.
• Our May 19th post about the theft of a bank laptop that resulted in a data breach is a reminder to train staff on safeguarding their laptops. Also on that day is the link to yet another robbery story, with a disturbing photo of the robber holding his gun to the head of an employee.
• A few months ago we shared a bank robbery case in which a hole was cut in the roof of the bank. We posted a similar case on May 25th. Safe deposit boxes and teller cash were stolen in this latest heist. On that same day, we posted about a different kind of bank heist that netted the thieves $85,000 per minute.
• Another bank robbery we shared on May 27th shows a man dressed in white with a black hat who committed a takeover robbery using a gun and pepper spray. Also posted on the 27th, is a bank robbery in Cincinnati during which a police officer who felt threatened shot and killed the bank robber. It turned out the robber was not only armed, but the cartridge in his gun had a depression in it. The round misfired.
• Our last post, also from the 27th, is about a man who was taken hostage, had a bomb strapped to his chest and thought he was going to die. But he later described the police investigation as being a worse experience than having the bomb on him.

Read about these and other informative topics on our BOL Facebook page. Be sure to "Like" the articles so we can continue to post more articles of interest to you!