...BOL (of course)

NPR had a bit on the radio this morning about gang members who get hired at banks, usually as tellers, and then empty out customer accounts.

This is old news to BOL. An article warning of this appeared on BOL last April. Tellers Targeted

Has anyone had this happen to them? Does anyone have any statistics on how prevelant this is? What are you doing to protect against this happening?

Ha !, most of the gang members in our small central Texas town wouldn't have a chance of being hired. Finger printing, credit reports, FBI checks, and aptitude tests would filter them all out. NPR is such a lame excuse for news ! I do listen to them on the way home at night but it is usually to hear the whinning liberal side of the story.

I wish I could rename this post. I did not put scam or gangs or any identifier in the Subject. My apologies.

Yes, NPR is very liberal. You don't notice it so much in their reporting as you do in what they do not report.

I am not sure How a gang member can be hired at a bank in USA ! but in jordan ( Usually) , He/she who wishes to work at a bank need His University Degree for a starter ! and I doubt it that those gang people will waste time and Money on their higher education !

Uh-oh, I just noticed that longhorn and here I sit at my desk in Aggieland. Fortunately, I am not an aggie so no offense taken.

Hussam, we are finding in the US that this is generally happening in the teller area. Most banks here don't require a university degree to be a teller. Sometimes the gang will approach a teller who works at the bank and intimidate her into doing what they wish.

I remember reading that article (actually I used it for training), I am not sure why tellers are hired separately in US banks, and a Teller is the first line of both a good customer service and Fraud too.

Keep in mind that a large Portion of suspicious activities indicators related to Money laundering for example are detected usually By front line staff, I strongly recommend that Banks in USA reconsider such a policy for hiring tellers as Just Tellers and Not a bank employee as we do here.

Hiring tellers is an Open invitation for Fraud, armed robbery and gang members! ,
Proactive approach would be more suitable to cut down the problems before it happens. This is More Like the 5 day’s collection period for checks in USA and all the check fraud that is going there, I am sure if that some one ( or that certain agency ) who required the mandatory 5 days collection period ,will back off the Minute he spots the scary numbers on check fraud in USA.

I'm not sure I understand. Does your institution hire tellers and not consider them bank employees? I agree with you that the teller position is one of a few in the bank that serve as a "first line of defense" against fraud, money laundering, and the like (in addition to having to handle the angry customers!). In any case some (if not all) banks here put new tellers on a probationary period when they are hired. This reduces their cash limits, decisionmaking authorities, etc. Combined with good background checks, this should serve as a deterrent to a gang member actually being "planted" at a bank.

Hussam
Years ago you were not hired directly to be a teller. Usually, a person was hired into an entry level position and after a least one year and often more, of learing things like bookeeping, statements, and what the banks products and services were, they could enter a teller training program. People were trained to be professional bankers.

That all went away in the late 70's when the Harvard Businesss school types started showing senior management how much they could save in training costs by hireing tellers directly off the street.

Will we ever go back to what you suggest? No, it's all in the economics and an attitude at high levels in banking that the problems encontered are less costly, than what it would take to provide in depth on going training.