San Juan businesses want more security against shimming

Abraham Ali, secretary of the San Juan Business Association, said he is deeply concerned over the high number of reports of fraud and the newest scam, "shimming," revealed by the Fraud Squad on Thursday.

In shimming, a scammer uses a device to read and clone the information from a credit or debit card through the magnetic strip.

Cpl Terrence Nowbutt added in a phone conversation with Newsday on Friday that shimming is a major issue internationally and the Fraud Squad is working on ensuring it doesn’t escalate to such lengths in TT.

He warned business owners, “If a customer presents a chip-enabled card and claims that the chip is damaged and asks to use the strip, do not allow it.”

He said this is because with shimming, though the card and information can be cloned on a magnetic strip, the chip feature cannot be replicated.

The Fraud Squad reported at a press conference that in 2022, there were 1,189 reports of fraud which amounted to over $98 million. These numbers were announced by W Insp Tricia Smith.

She added that the Fraud Squad has also seen reports of fraud that amounted to US$584,809.03 and €49,994.82.

Among those reports were fraudulent cheques amounting to over $5 million; online fraud added up to over $10 million; investment fraud amounted to $27 million; encumbered vehicles and the purchase of foreign-used vehicles had a total of over $7 million; and romance fraud – scammers use a confidence trick, feign a romantic relationship with the victim, gain their trust and affection and use the victim's goodwill to scam them out of money – had a dollar value of over $2 million.

On shimming, Ali said, “We think that the banks, the police and all the relevant authorities should come together to deal with the prevalence of shimming and how it will affect the financial sector, because what you could have as a result of shimming is some people not wanting to use their cards.”

He said this will then lead to more people wanting to stay away from credit and debit cards, especially if they can’t retrieve the money that was stolen from them, which will force them to rely mainly on cash transactions.

“A lot of transactions in TT are done through credit-card facilitations, and because of the crime situation in the country, if people have to revert to using cash transactions, then that is going to be received negatively by the business community.

“So we are asking the authorities together with the banks to come together to have some measures of security so that we can implement it, whether it’s at the level of where the transaction takes place, the ATM machines or the credit users: if they can come up with some security measure to deal with that, so we can alleviate the fear the public has at this time in using credit cards and the loss of income by businesses and loss that credit-card holders incur.”

Ali suggested the authorities find ways to safeguard credit and debit card-holders by using technology. He said that too is extremely worrying because now scammers can find a way to duplicate the card’s information from chip cards with little to no effort, as all that is needed is for the chip on the card to be visible and for it to be placed on the machine.

He said, “On the side of businesses, we have to have a secure area for the transactions to take place for the personnel of the business and the customer. So only persons who are allowed to use the machines can take the card to swipe or tap for payment, as they would be trusted people.”

Ali said he is anticipating the banks’ roll-out of security measures with the level of shimming taking place.

Nowbutt warned that people should also look out for e-skimming. He said e-skimmers drive customers to a legitimate-looking checkout page, where they will enter their credit-card information, name, address and other sensitive details – steal their information and either make purchases or sell the information to a third party.

Safety tips for debit and/or credit-card holders: Ensure you are aware of your surroundings and keep transactions private, especially in ATMs

Examine the machines

Always keep your card in view

Do not reveal your PIN to anyone

Do not respond to texts, links, pop-ups or websites asking for personal information

Dispose of bank statements decisively

Only use reputable online shopping sites

Double-check if e-mails, texts or phone calls are authentic and from financial institutions.