BankersOnline Security Spotlight

We turned our clocks back at the beginning of November, creating a problem that many banks overlook twice a year:settings for lights or other security equipment don't always automatically adjust for the semi-annual time changes, and the consequences can be serious. One of the biggest lawsuits lodged against financial institutions concerns inadequate lighting.Even systems that do automatically adjust should be checked to ensure that the public is protected when using ATMs or night depositories.With this in mind, this is a perfect time to perform night inspections of your banking offices. A form I developed to help document them is available in the Banker's Tools area.

Under Attack: Scams, Schemes and Frauds
Welcome to the Final Issue of Security Spotlight for 2009
We report the stories of a few very creative robbers this month. They use costumes, gimmicks, even try to eat the evidence, but in the end, they all get caught!Read the Security Shorts to learn of a couple more "creative ideas" - don't let your bank personnel be fooled by these gimmicks that were designed to do just that. Then check out Barry Thompson's Tip for nighttimeinspections of your bank offices, and download his helpful form.

"Creative" Robbery 101
John Ford (pictured at left) was slammed against the patrol car with the last part of the robbery note he planned to give to the teller sticking out of his mouth, as he quickly tried to chew and swallow the rest.A police dash-cam recorded the whole incident. This wasn't the only evidence against him, however. Ford matched the description of a bank robbery from two days earlier, and his car matched the description of the getaway vehicle. In his car they found money in a bag, with an exploded dye pack!

A bank robber rolled up to the Credit Union Service Center in West Valley City, UT on a skate board.Upon entering the credit union, he dropped his skate board, pulled out a hand gun and demanded that the teller fill his back pack with money. This robber is also a suspect in a similar robbery that occurred in July. He is described as wearing black pants, hoodie, shoes and gloves, but with one standout feature: he wears a green cap under his hoodie.

A Few More Creative Robbers...

Bad Taste Can Lead to Bad Breath -In Tamarac, Florida, police are looking for a man who held up a branch of TD Bank. He told the teller to fill his orange Halloween bag with cash. Then he motioned to his waist, intimating that he was armed. While the teller saw no gun, she did provide police with a good description of him, his clothing, and that he had "notably bad breath."

Robbed with a Federal Search Warrant -In Henderson, Nevada, the FBI has arrested five men in connection with the robbery of a Wells Fargo branch. The group entered the bank branch and delivered what they said was a federal search warrant to the branch manager. The warrant required that they seize all the cash in the bank's vault. The branch manager refused to comply and was threatened and handcuffed. The five were arrested as they left the bank.

Some Days it is Good to Close On Time -We hear of many banks that open a few minutes early and close a few minutes late, just to be cordial to their customers. That apparently wasn't the case in Waukesha, Wisconsin recently. Six minutes after closing, a man with a handgun and a ski mask entered the first set of doors to the bank. They were unlocked, but the inner doors were locked as the branch was now closed. Police are reviewing the security tapes as a part of their investigation into this "untimely" attempted robbery.

Alerts & Counterfeits
The good news is that there were only eleven Alert & Counterfeit notices last month. The bad news is that if you were busy on November 9, you could have missed seven alerts. The OCC sent one on the 9th and one on the 18th. The rest were from the FDIC and in total, these notices were all sent on one of four different days. Two of the eleven were Counterfeit Official Checks, and the rest were Counterfeit Cashier's Checks reports. The common thread in most cases is that the fraudulent items look official, but other than the bank name and routing number, there are often massive differences between these and genuine items.

You still have to watch for these every day, at every hour, and from each of the regulatory agencies. When you read part of the alert, and it says, "Due to possible variations between the appearance of the bank's authentic items and the counterfeit items associated with the scam, officials of Integra Bank, N.A., suggest they be contacted to verify authenticity of the bank's cashier's checks if received by an unknown entity," how will your tellers know about these items? You can have them check just one source, the BOL Alerts & Counterfeits page. We also publish a free Compliance Briefing, sent each morning, alerting you to postings from the previous business day. You can subscribe here.

Cards, Checks and a . . . Canary?
Each time we review the month's collection of BOL CrimeDex alerts that reach our mailbox, we see something different. This month's offerings include card fraud involving a cash advance and cloned plastic, phony checks and suspicious money orders showing up in all the wrong places. The cash advances were reportedly made by a New England bank to a male suspect carrying an Oregon driver's license. Cloned credit cards were reportedly used in western Washington by a crook with a Texas license. A Massachusetts credit union reported that a member deposited multiple money orders and gave a suspicious explanation involving the sale of a boat and California MoneyGram scams.

The canary? Three Oregon banks were robbed in two days by an unidentified male that police have dubbed the "Canary Bandit." There was no reason given for the moniker in the mid-month attempt to identify the suspect. Could he have "whistled while he worked"?

Not all robberies happen across the teller line. Many of your customers are being robbed through their computers and cell phones. Security needs to be involved in order to coordinate efforts to protect the bank and its customers.