BankersOnline Security Spotlight

Wouldn't it be nice to have access to cheap technology that can detect counterfeit currency, fraudulent identification, and altered or counterfeit checks?Black light has been around for years, yet many financial institutions fail to purchase them. Most documents have embedded security features that can be observed with a black light, and when fraudulent items are placed under this light, it's easy to see that security features have been altered or are missing. No teller line or front office staff should be missing this important device in combating fraud.


Welcome to the April Issue of Security Spotlight
In this edition, we debut a new feature you'll see each month -- a security tip from BOL Guru Barry Thompson.Plus, we put the counterfeit numbers in perspective, provide some suggestions for boosting security, share lessons from some recent heists, link you to a whole new collection of robbery suspect photos, and inform you aboutthe latest robbery schemes, scams and fraud. We also tell you what's new in our blogs.

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Bank Robbery Update
"Kiddie" Bandits Terrorize Texas
It isn't unheard of to have a parent and a child team up to rob a bank.Near Austin, Texas, Diedre Lynn Blackburn (46) recently pleaded guilty to two counts of bank robbery with her son, Charles Blackburn, Jr., who was 16 at the time. He was also charged with two counts of bank robbery. While appearing in court, the mother confessed to two other bank robberies as well, including one dating back to December 2007.

Deidre planned the robberies and was the getaway driver. Charles carried out his mom's plans with an unloaded BB gun. Deidre was sentenced to 35 years in prison for each of the two counts, with the sentences to run concurrently. Charles, now 17, was tried as an adult and is sentenced to 30 years in prison. He'll be eligible for parole in 15 years.

About the same time as the Blackburns were holding up banks, a 16 year old girl also robbed another Austin area bank. Because she was a minor, her name was withheld by the police. They also withheld the name of one accomplice who was a minor, but did name Roger Javier Dinarte, 21, and Iram DeJesus-Perez, 19, who planned the robberies and aided in the getaway. A gun was used in this case. None of the four had any criminal record to speak of. This case is unusual, not just because of the age of the two minors, but also because they are starting their criminal careers with such a serious offense.

North of Austin is Waco, Texas. There, a credit union was robbed in November 2008. The robbery wasn't unusual -- a man approached a teller, said that he had a gun, and demanded money, but this time the "man" was a 15 year old boy. In January 2009, he went down to Austin where he and his dad, Anthony Wayne Burdett Jr. (35) robbed another credit union.

In Waco, the boy was seen walking toward the highway for his getaway. No vehicle was seen. In Austin, a vehicle description was provided. Austin police were able to apprehend the two after a short car chase later that afternoon.

The lesson here? When it comes to security, employees should not let their guard down just because the customer approaching them may be eligible for a student account.

New Perp Pics
On the BankersOnline Bank Robbery page, we are featuring a whole new set of photos and information onthe latest bank robbery suspects.You'll find 98 bandit pictures to circulate to your staff.Perhaps one of them banks with you while robbing someone else.Go look!

Save That Note!
If a note-passing robber demands money from a teller, has your teller been trained to attempt to keep the note?The identification and arrest in Oklahoma City of a four-time female bank bandit was made precisely because the note was retained and fingerprints led police to the perp.She had managed to elude identification despite pretty clear photos because she had only recently moved to Oklahoma City from Houston and knew few people.With no prior criminal record, her prints weren't in the criminal database, but they were on file as a result of an application she had once made to be a guard at a correctional facility!The note can contain vital evidence.Work with your tellers on strategies for making sure the robber doesn't walk out with it.

Alerts & Counterfeits
When the economy is bad, as it has been for the past five-plus months, we expect to see an increase in crime, so we decided to review one barometer of crime; counterfeit official checks, money orders and similar monetary instruments. The results were not what we expected. While the first quarters of 2007 and 2008 were very consistent, 2009 has actually declined in reported items by 44 percent. The table below is a recap from the Alerts & Counterfeits page.

We also sampled the asset sizes of the reporting institutions to see if criminals were targeting smaller banks that may have less infrastructure to deal with this crime. Smaller banks, less than $500 million in assets, had a slight decline from 2008 to 2009. (This most recent quarter is still higher than the 2007 percentage, however.) The corresponding increase is in the larger banks with assets over $1 billion. Mid-size banks, $501 million to $1 billion has remained flat for two years after a slight decline in 2007-2008.

We suspect that counterfeiting of items like cashier's checks may be on the wane because crooks are now devoting their time to creating bogus corporate checks in connection with mystery shopper scams, work at home fraud, and other schemes.Click over to the Bankers' Threads to talk about what you're experiencing.

Go to BOL's Alerts & Counterfeits page to read more about the alerts.

Blogs

In the BOL Security Blog you can read why acting fast after a bank robbery can help take criminals off the street in record time, and safely. This blog entry is here.

We also have two entries of interest to the Security Officer in the Anti-Phishing Blog. You can read some of the 2008 statistics for internet crime. How much of an increase was 2008 internet crime over 2007, what were the monetary losses, the common complaints and who loses more, men or women?

The second post of interest tells you how profitable internet scams can be. Even when making less than a dollar for a referral, big bucks can be the result. These are real world examples, taken from an actual review of server transactions.

It is all in the Anti-Phishing Blog.