BankersOnline Security Spotlight

In this last Security Spotlight of the year, our report on "Holiday" Robbers should be a reminder to take extra care doing your holiday shopping. Don't forget that the Holiday Season is a favorite time for lottery and mystery shopper scams. Check out our CrimeDex story to learn about a "bust out" scheme operating in New England. All of us at BankersOnline wishyou and yours a very Happy Holiday season. Just remember, robbers and scam artists don't take time off to celebrate! They work overtime!

"Holiday" Robbers - Not so Jolly!
It's not a secret that the holidays are a busy time for everyone. With a jaw-dropping 111 robbery suspects posted on the robbery page right now, it seems as though the bank robbers have been the busiest of all. Police in Mandan, North Dakota, are looking for a masked gunman that robbed a bank right across the street from the police station.The FBI is looking for a serial bank robber that has hit seven banks in Charlotte and Gastonia, North Carolina, since 2005. Police say that he has been successful in his crime spree because he is disguised so well that they don't even know for sure his race or body type. In the latest robbery of RBC Centura Bank, (this is allegedly the second time the suspect has robbed this bank), he pointed a gun at the tellers, threw them a black bag, demanded money and then escaped by foot.

Ninety seven of those robbery page suspects on BOL's robbery page were wearing a hat or hood of some kind. Order your "No Hats" signage here to help protect your institution against unnecessary loss due to a robbery. Click here for an article by BOL Guru Sam Ott about the origins of the "No Hats" bank security movement

Take a look at the Bank Robbery page to get more information on these and other robbery suspects.

Central National Bank wants to alert everyone of a lottery scam with a phone number that originates from Lachine, Canada. Items presented to date may have Juanita E. Mooney listed as the remitter and be payable in the amount of $5,250. The correspondence informs the recipient that he or she has won a large dollar amount in a sweepstakes drawing maintained by Readers Digest and Publisher's Clearing House and are further instructed to contact a claims agent and to use the enclosed check to pay processing and insurance fees. Rabobank in California reports a similar Canadian lottery scam with correspondence informing the customer of his or her winning status in the North American Lottery. West Valley National Bank warns of a mystery shopping scam with correspondence containing the letterhead of "Market Vision Inc. Shopping Business Solutions" with instructions and a Canadian telephone number. In addition, nine other institutions reported counterfeit checks in circulation.

Go toBOL's Alerts & Counterfeits to read about other alerts.

NEW!You can now search our Alerts & Counterfeits Database, by type of alert, by state, or by date as well as using a keyword search.

Click here to access the new, searchable Alerts & Counterfeits Database.
We?ve also developed a handy Alerts & Counterfeits Widget that can be accessed from our new BankersOnline Toolbar.The toolbar installs in either the IE or Firefox browser and includes easy access to the most valuable BankersOnline resources.

Did you know that you can replicate a key based on a photo of it? Did you know that this has been demonstrated and a photo taken from 200 feet away will work? Read more on the Security Blog and start considering the security implications of this.

Read about the sentencing of a 16 year old bank robber. Would you consider him armed? You'll be surprised who planned the robberies. It is under "It is a crying shame."

The Security Blog also has a story on three of ten suspects involved in the Citibank/Cardtronics EFT scams, "Three Plead Guilty in Card Fraud". Thousands of cards were used to steal millions of dollars. How it was done and where the money went is included.

If you are interested in "What response rate is needed for spam to make money?" you'll be interested in this Anti-Phishing blog. You may be surprised how much money is being made off what you already see as spam.