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An article relating to this blog post on Finextra:

DIY students tackle Japanese ATM fraud

In a bid to tackle scammers swindling elderly people out of cash, Japanese students have developed a security tool that warns members of the public to turn off their mobile phones when they approach A...


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This Fraud Starts Before You Get To The ATM

When I read this, my immediate thoughts (actually let's skip the first), were that if a scammer has called a victim and convinced them to go to an ATM and transfer money to the scammer's account, it is unlikely that the victim is going to turn off their phone.

The warning may not be effective if the victim already believes they are transferring money in good faith.

The crux of the issue is the current availability of plenty of personal information for scammers to script their cons with. It is a result of flawed and ineffective identity management in financial and government services and an endless string of other failures. The cat is out of the bag.

There are new procedures and methodologies for financial transactions that could deal with it.

Perhaps putting the mobile firmly into the picture might make it easier to arrange a 'tap on the shoulder' from the police when the fraudster attempts to collect their ill-gotten gains.

On the surface we have a scammer with a bank account number we know. We also know their phone number. They have to get the money out of the system somewhere and we'll know that. It is really a matter of investigation to bring the scammers to justice and it's a matter of methodology to reduce their future opportunities.

It is sad that the Japanese, with their fine reputation for honesty and law-abiding are falling victim to their own good nature.

 

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A Finextra member
A Finextra member 09 November, 2008, 12:00Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

I know all the ATM guys will be laughing about this, because we know the better ATM operators have the facility to put all sorts of messages in the actual ATM screen, and a warning would be easy.

It could be a standard message to anyone transfering to a new account they haven't transfered to before, but even that probably won't help if the victim has been well conned.

Just ask any cowboy, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink...

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