Source: Telegraph Journal

SAINT JOHN – A tamper-proof seal used by the Saint John Police Force to protect against pin pad fraud is gaining attention from the financial industry.

Sgt. Tony Hayes gives a presentation on pin pad theft during the police commission meeting. “Interac has called and I have sent them my package,” Sgt. Tony Hayes said. “They had heard out of Ontario what was going on and were curious. Initially when I started this they were reluctant to send anything.”

He gave a presentation to the Saint John Board of Police Commissioners Tuesday night on a system he developed to alert store owners if their pin pad machines have been tampered with by thieves to skim off banking information.

The phenomenon of small groups of criminals targeting stores to tamper with the debit card machines has been a problem in larger centres for several years, but until last October it hadn’t happened in Saint John, Hayes said.

The criminals target chain stores, usually at closing time, to distract staff and replace a debit card pin pad with a look-alike that doesn’t work. “It (the fraud) only works if no one tries to use the pad before closing,” Hayes said.

They take the good pin pad outside, open it up and install electronic equipment capable of collecting all the banking information from debit cards used in it. In the morning, when the store opens, they bring it back, saying whatever they bought the night before isn’t right and again distract the staff while returning the real pin pad.

The doctored pin pad is left in place for a few weeks, he said. Some thieves use wireless electronic equipment to capture the information, while others have to go back and switch the pin pads in and out again overnight.

Once they get the banking information, as well as the pin numbers, they make fake cards and send groups of people out on shopping sprees, which are short lived because banks have developed computer programs to detect unusual spending patterns, which results in accounts being locked down.

To make it easier to find out if a pin pad has been tampered with, Hayes came up with the idea of using a holographic plastic seal that disintegrates if anyone tries to remove it. Each seal also has a unique number on it so it can’t be copied.

Stores in Brunswick Square, where the fraud first happened last October, have participated in the program and now about 150 businesses throughout the city have taken part and more are in the works, he said.

Prevention can produce a big return because the last time debit cards were skimmed in Saint John it affected about 400 customers, who each had about $500 taken from their accounts, he said.

“The fraud section has been inundated since Tony came up with this pretty simple idea that actually works,” Police Chief Bill Reid said.

“It’s been an excellent, well-received program.”