(Trinidad Guardian) Skimmers have reportedly successfully stolen close to $.2 million from bank accounts belonging to Scotiabank customers.
In the latest scam, which police said occurred on Friday between 8 pm and 11 pm, money was withdrawn from bank accounts through card skimming. Victims from Friday had as much as $5,000 withdrawn from their accounts.
Yesterday, two of the victims contacted the T&T Guardian and said they had lodged official reports at the T&T Police Service’s Fraud Squad and Scotiabank’s Port-of-Spain head office.
One of the victims, who wished not to be identified, said when he went to the bank yesterday there were several other victims just like himself waiting in line to report card skimming episodes.
“We hope that the stolen monies are reverted to our accounts as soon as possible and that security is beefed up by the bank to avoid such an incident from occurring in the future. You always hear about it but when it happens to you it is very distressing,” the victim said.
When contacted yesterday, a bank official who wished not to be identified, said she could not comment on the matter. However, she directed customers to the bank’s website where customers who have fallen victims to fraudsters to contact the bank immediately at 625PLUS (625-7587).
Incidents of phishing and skimming have been on the rise in recent years.
Phishing is a type of identity theft where criminals use emails to try to bait people into fake websites. Once there, you are asked to disclose confidential financial and personal information, like passwords, credit card numbers, access codes or social insurance numbers. The most popular type of phishing scam is an e-mail threatening serious consequences if you do not log in and take action immediately.
Scotiabank has continually noted it does not send customers unsolicited emails asking for confidential information, such as your password, PIN, access code, credit card and account numbers. Customers who have received a fraudulent email are asked to forward it to phishing@scotiabank.com.