Gazette - Skimming scams

COVER SECTION

Preventing payment card fraud through education

By Cst Lloyd Schoepp
RCMP Commercial Crime Section
Calgary

In the spring of 2006, the RCMP Commercial Crime Section (CCS) Calgary and the Calgary Police Service (CPS) Economic Crime Unit met to discuss the growing crime trend of debit and credit card skimming.

Courtesy of CCS Calgary
This tampered pin pad was used in a skimming fraud.

Skimming involves the unauthorized copying of electronic data from your payment card’s magnetic stripe. Organized crime groups are behind a large portion of the skimming, which is growing at a rapid rate nationally (34 per cent increase in 2005–2006) and annually costs the Canadian economy millions of dollars in losses.

Skimming is not limited to a specific geographic area in Canada, which means an integrated approach is needed to effectively combat skimming at a local, national and international level. In addition to focusing on collaborative enforcement, CCS and CPS discussed the idea of developing an effective prevention program.

After reviewing various prevention programs across Canada, CPS and RCMP investigators focused on Project Protect. Project Protect is a collaborative crime prevention and education program involving law enforcement agencies, Interac Association, payment card partners and other industry partners. Police officers visit retail outlets to educate managers and employees about payment card fraud. The program provides training for front-line officers and equips merchants with valuable tips to prevent payment card fraud at their businesses.

The program was first launched in November 2005 by Peel Regional Police in partnership with eight southern Ontario law enforcement agencies, Interac Association, major credit card companies and participating gas retailers. The program was modelled after a similar program carried out in Quebec in 2002 by the Longueil Police Service. The original pilot focused on gas stations and resulted in significant decreases in skimming — as much as 60 per cent — at retail gas outlets.

In 2006, the CPS and the Alberta RCMP worked with Interac Association to launch the program in the greater Calgary and southern Alberta areas.

In preparation for the launch of Project Protect, CPS and RCMP members attended training sessions in Calgary and Lethbridge on skimming and Project Protect. In Calgary, the project was initially piloted in one CPS District and at six RCMP detachments, which included a mix of rural and urban detachments.

Police obtained copies of the brochures used by Interac Association in Ontario and modified them to meet the needs of the CPS and the Alberta RCMP.

During the summer of 2007, the pilot program was reviewed to determine its successes, with the view of expanding the program throughout Alberta. Merchants’ response to the pilot program was extremely positive, and they voiced their appreciation for the efforts of police officers who attended and educated merchants on card skimming. The project also proved successful when a merchant, following the procedures outlined in the project, discovered a tampered pin pad and alerted police.

In September 2007, meetings were held with Interac Association to determine the future focus of the program and locations were identified for continued rollout of the program.

In addition, CPS and RCMP members met with an Alberta-based financial institution to develop a pilot program where corporate-branded Project Protect pamphlets will be delivered to new merchants. This will create an additional distribution channel to assist with disseminating the prevention program.

While challenges remain — such as getting members in busy detachments to sign on and finding alternative delivery channels when resources are limited — members of the RCMP and CPS will continue to work with policing and industry partners to expand the program throughout Alberta and work to increase skimming prevention awareness.

Information on Project Protect can be obtained by visiting Interac Association at www.interac.ca .