(Trinidad Express) One of the country’s largest commercial bank was targeted by skimmers over the weekend.
Fraudsters made off with more than TT$368,000 belonging to customers of Scotiabank Trinidad and Tobago.
This was confirmed by a senior Fraud Squad officer.
Between last Friday and Tuesday, there were 68 fraud reports made to police.
Last, November, there were several reports of skimming involving Scotiabank customers.
Customers told the Express they lost tens of thousands of dollars.
And at that time, the bank said it was taking action against the scam.
What is skimming?
Skimming is a method by which thieves capture the information of cardholders and use this to procure cash through automatic machine teller (ATM) withdrawals. A small device, known as a skimmer is used by tricksters to swipe information for the illegal removal of cash.
One customer who wished not to be named said his account was compromised and the commercial bank has done little to alleviate his worry over the issue.
He said the bank has not protected the rights of its customers and promised to no longer bank with the financial institution.
Several citizens have also reported that they have received text messages as part of a phishing scam, which is a form of identity theft, requesting confidential and personal bank account information.
The bank has since warned customers who fell victims by the thieves of this matter and asked they contact the nearest bank when this occurs.
Several banks has warned customers that they should never disclose their PIN number, passwords, account information or any other personal or financial information to anyone or any intuitions.
When contacted for further information regarding the matter, the bank’s corporate affairs department said it would get back as soon as possible.
The senior official at the Fraud Squad has some words of advice for member of the public in terms of keeping their information safe.
The official said use ATM where there are many people around to minimise the risk of having the card compromise as skimmers tend to use ATM’s with little foot traffic in order to set-up their card tampering devices.
Customers should be vigilant and scan the area before conducting withdrawals, look at the machine for glue as it is the substance used to tamper with the ATM equipment.
Always have cards within view when paying for transactions as cards can be easily swiped to steal the card information.
Should a cardholder become a victim of skimming, the investigators would need to know the last place the card was used and when they last used the card.
