Club help Phuket police combat ATM fraud

PHUKET: The ATM Service Business Club (ASB), under the Thai Banker’s Association, held a seminar with Phuket police today (May 18) to pass on knowledge about ATM and credit card fraud investigations.

Paritta Wangkiat

Friday 18 May 2012, 06:21PM

The ATM Service Business Club (ASB), under the Thai Banker’s Association, held a seminar with Phuket police today (May 18) to pass on knowledge about ATM and credit card fraud investigations.

“The more technology develops, the more security systems are put at risk,” said the President of ASB, Pairoj Deeraksa, who organised the event. “So we need to have better understanding of technology to prevent losses.”

Old ways of committing ATM fraud, such as the use of skimmers, would likely disappear soon due to improvements in security, but newer technology was expected to take their place, Mr Pairoj said.

For the time being, however, hand held skimmers are still one of the most popular ways of committing fraud, with criminals usually approaching people while they are using an ATM machine.

Other tricks include telling a person approaching an ATM that the machine is not working. The fraudsters then offer to help the ATM user, taking the opportunity to scan their card.

ASB said that ATM fraud was more likely to occur in tourist areas such as Phuket.

During the seminar, Phuket police were introduced to new investigative technology, such as a face recognition database that can help find criminals involved in ATM and credit card fraud.

However, an IT specialist at the seminar, who asked not to be named, said some police offers were unable to see the benefits of increased use of technology.

“To bring a speedy arrest, police investigations will need to use both data information and experience,” said the specialist. “Generally, police seem more inclined to rely solely on experience.”

Data information included a facial database of criminals and suspects, which would help police to match CCTV camera footage of suspects to those of criminals already in the system.

The IT specialist said the development of investigative technology was a challenge, as it needed cooperation, a large budget, and profound understanding of how IT works.

Currently, ASB are trying to develop CCTV cameras on ATM machines that can capture high-quality photos of fraudsters, which could be of assistance with police investigations.