Security Spotlight: Bandits and their best friends, a rash of alerts, & more!

Canine Connections

Dog walker disguise -

When 33-year-old Michael Morgan handed a note to the teller at 1st Colonial National Bank demanding cash, he was seen in the bank's surveillance footage wearing a jacket over a hooded sweatshirt and sporting a goatee and a mustache. When police arrived on scene to investigate, they knew exactly where to conduct their search. Morgan was recognized by the local cops from previous calls involving the suspect. When Morgan saw the police arrive in his neighborhood, he shaved off his facial hair, put on different clothes, and smugly took his dog out for a walk. He was so confident the police wouldn't recognize him, he approached one of the officers and offered his assistance. Noticing a resemblance to their suspect, the officer asked his name, which the cocky crook voluntarily supplied. Morgan was promptly arrested and charged with robbery and theft. His canine companion was left in the care of his girlfriend.

Brought his best friend -

At one time used mostly for hunting and guarding, today dogs are often referred to as "man's best friend." Some men take their dogs everywhere they go...apparently. In Tucson, AZ a man carrying a handheld shopping basket approached two Chase Bank tellers at a supermarket branch and demanded cash. The bandit didn't display a weapon, but inside the shopping basket he placed on the counter was a white Chihuahua. The tellers complied with his request and the man fled with an undisclosed amount of cash - and his dog. The suspect is white or Hispanic, about 35 years old, around 5'10" tall and weighs approximately 180 pounds. His canine companion, age unknown, is petite, white, and weighs approximately 4-6 pounds. Bank surveillance photos of the man and the dog have been released, but no arrests have been made.

Check our Bank Robbery page for photos and information on the latest robbery suspects. Hats and hoodies are often worn to conceal a bandit's identity. Of the 48 unknown bank bandits featured in our suspects gallery for March, only one was not wearing some type of head covering or disguise.

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.

Desperate measures and Safety Measures

Desperate measures...

Bank robberies should always be taken very seriously. They are often committed by desperate people, and desperate people often take desperate measures. During a robbery, the primary goal should always be to get the robber out of the bank as quickly as possible. Near St. Louis, MO, when Tye Kaufman robbed a U.S. Bank and fled, the bank employee who reported the robbery was able to provide the police with a good description of the suspect and the getaway car. With that information, police quickly located Kaufman and pursued him until he crashed about four miles from the bank. Having been informed that the suspect was armed, police cautiously approached the vehicle when they heard a shot fired. Kaufman - a former Marine - had shot himself in the head, was transported to the hospital in critical condition, and later died. It makes us wonder what he would have been capable of if he had gotten trapped inside the bank with hostages.

Hats off for hasty arrest...

We tip our hats to members of the Little Rock, AR police department for their "exemplary work" in responding to a bank robbery and the quick apprehension of the suspects. Two homeless men Derrick Galvin, 20, and Myron Thompson, 22, entered a U.S. Bank branch and, while Thompson stood watch, Galvin threw a bag on the teller's counter, jumped up on the counter, demanded money and displayed a handgun before fleeing with the loot. An observant bank employee remembered having seen one of the suspects in the bank a few days before wearing purple latex gloves and acting suspiciously. Responding officers acted quickly, located Galvin and Thompson nearby fleeing on foot, and had them in custody within twenty minutes.

What's your weapons policy?...

Criminals aren't the only ones who carry guns. If your bank has a weapons policy, it may read something like this: "Employees may carry a weapon, but leave it secured in their vehicle." Wells Fargo bans employees from bringing guns into work except (in very limited cases) when granted permission by a chief security officer at the bank. Ivette Ros, a Wells Fargo branch manager in Florida, carries a 9mm with her for safety. When security discovered she had a gun and questioned her about having it in her car and asked if she ever brought it into the bank, she admitted that she had. Ros, who was fired by the bank, is suing Wells Fargo for violating her constitutional rights. Wells Fargo has argued that only a government entity can violate a constitutional right and asserts that Florida is a right-to-work state, giving employers' discretion to fire an employee for nearly any reason. The bank is defending its actions, at considerable cost to do so. If this case proceeds, it may set a new precedent with regard to employees and workplace weapons policies.

Recycle vs shredding...

Going green and recycling are strong initiatives that can help your bank project a positive image to its customers and the community. But an act of good intention can sometimes have negative results. White collar crime is on the rise and identity theft remains a major concern for bank customers. PriceWaterhouseCooper recently reported that 45 percent of American organizations experienced fraud in the past two years. Of those affected, half of the respondents report the involvement of an internal perpetrator. Banks, and bank customers, need to pay close attention to how sensitive data is handled and secured. For example, locked shred bins with drop slots can effectively protect shredded data. This Sys-Con article has more tips on securely storing and disposing of documents. If you should spot confidential information left open to exposure at your bank, leave a Privacy Police Sticky Note to drive home your security requirements.

Hot Topics from the Bankers' Threads

In the publicly accessible threads, one banker has noticed more "romance scams" and the wiring of money. Hopefully they read our March 21 Facebook post! Other bankers contributed similar findings. Tell us about your experience or draw some lessons for future reference from this discussion. Sometimes it just makes more sense to start a search by reviewing the regulation.

Check out other interesting discussions taking place in the Public Security area. When commenting on these discussions, keep in mind this is an unprotected public forum and comments should be limited to generic content.

We also have a "private" security forum for discussion of more private, sensitive topics. That is where security officers were discussing data retained on copier/printers and vendors having access to the machines, as well as management's review of employee statements, LEOs request for your videos, gun broker customers, wires, gambling, 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 andyz@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.

CRIMEDEX

Spring arrives with the usual suspects

Spring is upon us, with no apparent relief from threats of fraud, larceny, robbery and other crimes. In this month's grab-bag of BOL CrimeDex alerts the first to catch our eye was an alert from a Texas bank whose elderly customer had been scammed into wiring at least $25,000 to accounts in New York in an elder-abuse scheme. An alert from a California credit union sought help identifying a woman involved in a new-account fraud ring in which bogus checks are used to open accounts and a confederate makes ATM withdrawals from the accounts before the frauds are detected. We wonder whether the credit union might be too effective in getting new ATM/debit cards issued on new accounts. Connecticut police and the U.S. Secret Service posted an alert about a "relative in distress" scam in which an elderly gentleman received a call from a person posing as his "grandson," claiming to have been arrested for a DUI charge, and in need of bond money. Two California credit unions posted a joint alert about a "point of compromise" suggesting that a skimming device had been used at a California Shell gas station. A Massachusetts bank warned of counterfeit checks drawn on one of its business customers' accounts in amounts between $2,000 and $2,500, allegedly sent to mules nationwide. And finally, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service distributed a request for help identifying a suspect who has stolen multiple identities and cashed several counterfeit cashier's checks in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area.

Are you a BOL CrimeDex subscriber? You could be receiving regional or nationwide alerts about crimes that can warn you of crooks operating in your area or scams that could affect your institution and its customers.

CrimeDex is now FREE to registered members of the Bankers' Threads Private Security Forum! Get the details and subscribe now!

Facebook Blog

Throughout the month, we share news related incidents on our Facebook page that can be informative examples for training employees on security issues and more. March was a busy month for security-related posts. Check out the video of a robber who couldn't hold all his stolen cash, so made the best use of his resources, in our March 6th post. Posting "selfies" on social media is all the rage these days. But posting one holding an unuto disguise his appearance.

Human trafficking is real and it is happening right here in the U.S. Don't believe it? Read our March 20th post. One man was looking for love in all the wrong places when he got scammed on an online dating site. Now he is suing the site, and his bank. Read the story from our March 21st post. And, while ATM malware may not be a common threat (yet), it is real. Check out the March 27th post to find out how thieves are getting cash from an ATM with a text message and keeping other thieves "honest" in the process. Keep up with 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!