Cybercrime prevalent in TT

Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) ‘skimming’, business e-mail compromise, financial phishing scams, ransom ware attacks and online character assassinations are the most prevalent forms of cybercrime in TT.

Some other trends include online lottery scams, identity theft, credit card fraud, ATM fraud, money laundering, spoofing and phishing, child pornography, cyber bullying, bombs threats and Nigerian scams.

This was revealed by Insp Amos Sylvester of the Police Cybercrimes Unit yesterday during the weekly police press briefing at the Police Administration Building in Port of Spain. He said successful cybercrime investigation and effective cybersecurity can only be achieved using holistic multi-national approach.

“We have laws implementation of guidelines, policies and corporation by all persons. We have not seen anyone going to the court in that particular trend thus far.” However, Sylvester said, “We have a number of cases in TT, but a lot is not being reported. Some cases were dealt with in house and a lot of companies dealt with it as best as they know how based on the guideline that was being thrown out over the internet.” He said the Cybercrime Unit is a unit within the TTPS, whose primary function is to assist police officers with investigations that involve more technical nature.

“We collect information with regards to computer-based crimes, in an effort to assist officers in identifying, and prosecuting criminal offenders and enterprises that unlawfully access sensitive data and exploit computer systems and networks that impact functionality.”

Sylvester said at present there are four main pieces of legislation in TT that govern investigation that deals with some form of technology. He said these include the Computer Misuse Act, Telecommunications Act, Interception of communications Act, and Offences against the Person which include Harassment.

When asked to explain what is character assassinations, Sylvester said, character assassinations is more or less a trend and not really something that is defined under TT’s legislation thus far.

“We are still waiting for the Cybercrime Bill that is within Parliament to be delivered to the country, but in terms of character assassination, once somebody feels that their character has been assassinated they can go and treat with it civilly. The person can hire a lawyer and pursue the matter in a civil nature. They will do some investigation and take the person before the court, the court may or may not award money depending on the merit of the case.”