Thefts involving distraction techniques are on the increase, and card fraud last year came to €14 million, substantially more than all armed robberies in the State combined, writes CONOR LALLY
IT CAN start with something as simple as a child waving a newspaper in your face as you use an ATM machine. You become momentarily distracted and you turn to see what's going on. Maybe it's late and you've had a few drinks. Your senses are not as sharp as they might be. You turn to remonstrate with the child annoying you, before returning to continue your transaction. But what you don't realise is that another child has nipped in, pressed the €200 withdrawal button on the ATM and made off with the cash. You've just become the latest victim of distraction theft.
Criminal investigations are complicated by the fact that the children involved are in most cases younger than 12, the age of criminal responsibility. Reliable Garda sources say the overwhelming majority of those engaged in distraction crime are Romanian children who've been corrupted by adult family members. Gardaí believe the same adults are responsible for much of the ATM and credit-card fraud carried out in the Republic last year. As well as introducing children to street crime and running lucrative payment card rackets, the gang leaders also run organised begging rackets.
In December, the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) revealed the number of sightings of children begging increased from 756 in 2005-2006 to 1,083 in 2006-2007. It was the first rise in four years. The increase coincided with Romania's accession to the EU.
In some distraction theft cases, pairs of children enter pubs looking for a charitable donation for a sponsored walk. When a customer is signing the sponsor card, wallets containing cash and credit cards are stolen from their bags as well as mobile phones and cameras.
Gardaí in Dublin city centre have become so concerned with distraction thefts they have established Operation Hawkeye to combat the problem. Last month, they arrested 12 people and seized stolen property valued at €30,000.
The most lucrative scams are those in which ATM and credit cards are cloned and used. Gangs have placed a small electronic skimming device over the slot where a bank card is inserted. The device records all of the data from the magnetic strip on the back of a card.
A small piece of tubing, made to look like part of the ATM machine, is placed directly over the keypad. The tubing has a camera inside, which records Pins being punched in.
After a number of people have used the ATM, the devices are taken away. The electronic data for the cards is downloaded from the skimming device onto a laptop and cloned onto blank cards. The footage on the camera is replayed and the Pins matched with the cloned cards. The gang members can simply withdraw money from the accounts of their victims. Credit cards are similarly targeted.
In the past, gang members have secured jobs in pubs and restaurants. When a credit card is surrendered for payment the gang member will skim the card through a tiny hand-held device before processing the payment for meals and drinks in the usual way. When a number of cards have been skimmed the data from the hand-held device is downloaded onto a laptop and used to clone credit cards. Some criminals simply sell the skimmed information to cloning specialists for use in other countries.
Last year, a Romanian couple, Constantina Stanciu (27) and Robert Ardeleanu (34), were involved in a credit card scam in Dublin. They were told by Judge Pat McCartan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to leave the country or face three years in jail. The couple electronically encoded Debenhams gift cards with details from bank cards skimmed at the Harbourmaster Restaurant in Dublin's IFSC, where Stanciu had gained employment under a false name. AIB alerted gardaí that many of its account holders had been targeted after they presented their cards for payment at the Harbourmaster. When detectives searched the couple's house they found genuine and cloned cards as well as €27,040 in cash.
More recently, last Monday, two Romanians were arrested in Dublin after about 300 blank cards, 100 cloned cards, laptops and skimming devices were found.
The Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO), which works to combat payment card crime, said €5 million was stolen last year in ATM skimming. Total card fraud in the period was €14 million, substantially more than all of the armed robberies in the State last year combined. "All obvious frauds are refunded to customers by their bank," said the IPSO's Úna Dillon. So far this year, IPSO is aware of 40 ATM skimming incidents, compared with 35 cases in the same period last year. There were 134 cases in the whole of last year. Gangs are now also operating outside the capital, particularly in the south and west.
Dillon says new technology being rolled out should offer greater protection to account holders. In the meantime, vigilance is urged.