About 4 million US dollars has been stolen from different commercial banks ATM withdraws through a scam involving three foreign criminals who have recruited and trained Zambians in cyber-crime.
Police Deputy Inspector General Solomon Jere revealed that police have discovered a scam in which the recruited Zambians have already started operating and specialize in ATM thefts.
Dr Jere said members of the public are therefore advised to secure their pin numbers and not to at any time share them with anyone who will offer help to them.
He said it is also advisable not to expose the pin number when making ATM transactions in isolation.
Dr. Jere said in a statement that the criminals may also take advantage of upcoming events such as the International Trade Fair in Ndola and the Lusaka Agriculture and Commercial show.
He said would-be attendants of these events are advised to take extra care of their personal documents and property to make sure they don’t become victims of such thefts.
Dr. Jere assured that Zambia Police is on the look-out for these criminals and once caught, they will face the wrath of the law.
In another development seven dangerous criminals have escaped from lawful custody in Congo DR and entered Zambia through Sakanya boarder.
The seven have no travel documents and are targeting people with firearms as they are ready to defend themselves.
The criminals escaped in the early hours of 12th June 2013 and are believed to be heading for the Copperbelt and Lusaka Provinces.
Police is now appealing to members of the public with firearms to secure them or deposit them at the nearest police station for safe custody.
Police officers on the Copperbelt, Central and Lusaka Provinces have been directed to intensify road blocks and snap check points.
That is very sad indeed, this scam happened a few years ago in Ireland involving some polish people who were mounting a machine on top of the ATM and a camera, their machine collected all the info from the card while the camera took the pin, and they simply duplicated the card and made withdraws. People should put a limit to how much they can draw per day so that even if those criminals steal your info, you can still limit the transactions through internet banking if the service is provided! Criminal will stop at nothing these days.
AM A BIT DISAPPOINTED WITH THIS MAN. I THOUGHT HE WILL ISSUE A STATEMENT OVER THAT POLICE WHO SHOT AN INNOCENT GIRL AND ONLY TALKS ABOUT 5 MILLION STOLEN. MONEY OR GOD. OUR CHILDREN , RELATIVES LIVES ARE IN DANGER.
So the Police shot at suspected soccer fans buying tickets at Post Office as criminals illegally withdrawing cash from ATM?
Mwebantu, please keep your money under your mattress or Shanga it like Liato. Banks are thieves!
How come the police discovered the scam and not the banks?
good one, you seem to be an interllectual.
Iwe naiwe!
Come on
Think tank, the Banks would have discovered that then Bank internal security gave that info to Zambia Police….the Bank is aware of that especially Stanbic Bank.
Obviously the banks had reported the issue to the police! Isn’t this straight forward ninshi?
Are you both dull? The banks can discover but it’s always appropriate that the POLICE make the statement. Nothing intellectual here, just simple common sense, period.
Jere and his boys are involved look at his face!
#3 London: this is not a blog for i.d.i.o.t.s. go back to facebook or wherever the he.ll you spawned from. This is a serious matter and there is no room here for your shallow quips.This is a serious situation and must be treated as such. They cyber robbers have been using ill informed and desperate people to do these acts of lacerny against the innocent. people need to watch their atms for signs of unusual devices and banks muct step in and do regular and random checks. The intelligence of zambians is rarely matched across the continent and can be used for good and evil. Government needs to provide more opportunities for talented youth to use their education and skills towards positive things.
True these guys are sophisticated and believe me the Zambia Police has no chance. I have been a victim of this kind of theft just before the world cup in SA where i lost over 35,000 ZAR. They actually lay a micro strip inside the ATM that clowns all the information from your card when you use the machine and they put miniature cameras that are not easily detectable to capture your pin. Even when you are careful, its quite easy to be duped and because of that most international banks have insurance against this and pay their customers back upon proof of fraud. Alas our Stanchart (my bank) always insists its the customer’s fault and refuses to entertain any complaints blaming the clients. they only started paying attention when they were almost crippled during the same world cup in SA.
Hope they will pay more attention and also take out insurance on such to protect their clients.
The Banks havce first hand information on this as they have mounted cameras at Atms, which can show when and where a particular card was used and by who, provided they reciev complaints from genuine card holders. The aspect that is that of formidable forensic analysts that can properly give an informed analysis to the public and alert endusers on the existing scams.
Banks must educate their customers on the dangers that go with the ATM cards at time of collection of card. This will help.
I heard that a female Zambian singer based in London was involved in this scam
This is called Skimming, it was the most common method used by Eastern European and Nigerian criminals. Those security cards that are standing by the ATM when one is withdrawing money in Zambia, should be removed
1. How do know the amount?
2. Do you use dollars in zambia?
3. How did crime hit that amount un noticed?
4. How do you know 3 foreigners are mastermind?
This is a PF xenophobic allegation intended at a certain COUNTRY we know reasons
Truthh is that so many parents lose money to their own SPOILD children who steal these cards , and draw the money, especially mothers.
Pansaka tapabula chipuba! Even in developed countries such as the UK the figures criminals are making from this sort of crime is billions of pounds. But as usual you had to bring in your useless political angle.
The banks know this very well and they are loosing alot of money in such crimes.They wouldnt want to tell the customers wat is going on as the might loose them.
Otherwise these criminals are very sophiscated and i dont think it will be easy to catch them.
It is happening and banks are loosing out collosal sums of money!!
Thats a copy and paste sexy story. K25 billion is a lot of money. Try to do simple maths.
Mmmmm Jere, how do you know there are 3 when you haven’t even caught one?
HE KNOWS. IT LIKE WHEN REPORT THAT YOU HAVE DEAD PERSON, WHO IS THE SUSPECT.
This country is in deep problems. Whts the role of our intelligence system and the police honestly.For the police to hv a crew on amounts stolen it means they have a bit of lead to these crimes and why alert the criminals in this order!? As far as I’m concerned the police wud hv done a gud job than this because they are employed to arrest criminals via a smartest possible way and in this situation the police must have trailed slow but sure these sophisticated criminals and come to us the public that this is what has been going on unlike the fashion they have used quite dull way off doing things and I can assure u these criminals have been hinted
A warning to Zambians, be careful with bank employees as well because this very scam is prevalent in South Africa which involves inside connections. The Zambian Financial institutions should install closed circuit television cameras(CCTV) at all ATMs. If CCTVs are operational alread then the Zambian Police will arrest the culprits and secure convictions through visual hard evidence obtained from security cameras (CCTVs). The time when an authorised ATM transaction is made is recorded, including the exact amount of money withdrawn and the picture of the person who has withdrawn the amount is indicated as well. Furthermore, fingerprints/other bodily fluids such as sweat, or hair samples or pubic hair can be collected too. Notice that when a human being commits a crime, she/he panicks.
Whenever transactions are made at anytime at any ATM all visual evidence is recorded and stalled at computor data base or at secret computor data valleys. In the case of South Africa, all available visual data collected from all CCTVs cameras located at entry points such as airports, border posts, or at various CBDa areas (CCTV cameras located throughout all cities and towns in S.A.) and along all major highways is stored in a heavily guarded facility in a Northern Cape desert. This evidence can be collected following a request from a court or investigation teams so as to use such evidence in court proceedings. The Zambian governmnet should invest in technological advances so as to monitor movements of organised criminal syndicates or terrorists before they implement their criminal action
The problem we have in Zambia is that banking firms are not willing to invest in security systems infrastructure in their organisations. They don’t see security breach as a serious threat. We need to invest more in security infrastructure so that our data is secured. Too many loops in IT systems and we lack security professionals pa zed.
Let those firms hire me and I will give them the security they need.
Will Zambians ever wake up one morning to read a story from the press that will give them joy and hope and smiles on their faces? Is Zambia under a curse?
The offence of fraud is quiet easy to prove or rather to detect, trace and subsequently effect an arrest. The Zambian Police National Commmissioner should stop lamenting about who is behind the suspected ATM scam but act maturely and professionally that is only warn the general public and swiftly pursue the those involved. Those currently faceless masterminders/prime suspects traditionally manufacture credit cards/debit cards using their own machines and distribute them to newly recruited criminals who then use those cards to commit fraudullent transactions. The common fraudullent transactions among groups such as the Nigerians mafias(highly educated PhD holders) or the Chinese Triads is the swift swopping of cards, whereby the victim is confused by the supposedly good samaritan.
The problem here is that its difficult to ascertain from the Deputy Inspector General’s vague statement what the three foreign criminals with their Zambian accomplices were actually doing;
1) Were they physically coping PIN numbers as they were entered by standing in close proximity to the ATM machine and the card user OR 2)Did they install a surreptitious surveillance equipment on ATMs that allowed them to record customers’ account information and PINs, create their own bank cards, and steal from customer accounts.
For them to carry out method one the suspected criminals need other details so I can only suspect it was method two which was used with clowned cards to ransack those ATMs as its widely used by East European criminal syndicates.
Cont’d
Banks are built on confidence and without that, the whole model is broken.
Breaches in data are the main culprits and as along as humans are involved this will be an ongoing problem.
These guys may also be using password skimmers and then cloning the cards. With data from the original card any flex card can be converted to an ATM card.
The Nigerian mafias, no offence to my Nigerian hard working brothers/sisters, but to a small section of criminals out of a population 175 million innocent people, crime is away of life. The Chinese Triads are on the rise as well including Americans affected by the economic crisis hammering the Euro-zone and the United States, these individuals on the one hand are experiencing turbulent times whereby their domestic economies are either collapsing or supported by shoe string budgets i.e. in the Euro-zone, the majority of Americans are on the welfare system for the first time ever in the 200 year history since the formation of the United States. On the other hand, the Chinese are experiencing an economic boom in which cities are built within a period of 5 to 10 years never seen anywhere
‘crime is a way of life’
The Chinese are confused and this is echoed by theories about societies going through periods of transitions or societies experiencing economic booms or economic crises. Crimes accompany such periods becuase those who do not have enough or nothing at all resort to criminal methods in order to acquire what they do not have. Society does not treat the poor or ‘the have nots’ kindly because society view them as nuisances due their failure to assert their positions in materistically manners. Thus, ‘when days are dark, friends are few’. In order to bypass this socially constructed norm, individuals commit crimes with intentions of gaining. Hence,we see criminals migrating from areas of scarcity to areas of plenty,criminals target victims who present the…
ATM skimming was commonly used in Europe and USA by criminals 4-8 years ago and the criminals had a honeymoon skimming the machines in that the authorities were making the selfsame mistake the Deputy Inspector General is making here…he is not being specific and to the unsuspecting Zambian card user he/she will looking out for suspicious individuals standing near the ATMs yet the foreign device is right in front of them. Only when you inform the card users exactly what to look out for can they be vigilant.
I agree, he’s sketchy on the details.
This makes sad reading.
OUR BANKS ARE PARTLY TO BLAME. MOST ATM ATTENDANTS ARE SECURITY GUARDS FROM HIRED SECURITY FIRMS. IT’S EASY FOR THESE CRIMINALS TO GET JOBS IN THESE FIRMS AND MAKE SURE THEY ARE POSITIONED TO GUARD AT BANKS OR WORK IN COLLABORATION WITH HIRED GUARDS AT ATMs.
It very funny for jere to advise pipo to deposit guns at the police when u expect criminals to attack. I thought he should advise us to buy more bullets for these boys
Mwebantu, please keep your money under your mattress or Shanga it like Liato. Banks are thieves!
ATM are secured CCTV monitors. And most banks have mobile alerts. By now alot should have been captured on camera. Cyber crime has not gone that far yet in Zambia. Leave Nigerians alon. Logic sounds abnormal to PF cadres.
Sad development!
Bembas are the Zambian link of this thievery. If you doubt it, then you my friend has issues.
People should give up their firearms because 7 armed criminals are loose?
What kinda god damned nonsense is this.
Mayhaps the guy wants unarmed civilians so cadres can go on rampages free from retaliation by citizens.
Jeez!
Actually it’s good to be cautious with your PIN but that’s not how these large scams work. The thieves transfer money electronically to specified accounts then those recruited on the ground go with blank cards and withdraw from different ATMs since they have limits.
It’s the banks which are hit with the loss as it all happens behind the scenes so if their is any customer money involved they will never know as the bank covers it.
These are the common cyber crimes taking place internationally now and they are moving to Africa I guess.
GIVE UP YOUR GUNS, THE ROBBERS ARE COMING!!!!!!!!. Jere you are funny..lol.
Hmm nadabwa koma how long would it take to withdraw $4 million US from Zambian ATMs whne maximum withdrawal is something like $400 per day? That is 10,000 withdrawals so it would take one person 10,000 days (27.3 years doing it every day and assuming funds are there).
LT are you sure this is not another story like “27 kg ivory worth US$140 million” when actually talking of 50 thousand?
In Europe Chip and Pin is the usual form of protection for credit and debit cards. This is where a computerised chip is found on the front of the card. From our work we have seen that using the magnetic strip, where your information is coded onto a mag strip on the back of the card, is seen as a “cheap” way to enter the credit or debit card arena.
The drawback of mag strips is that they can be duplicated easily and they are less secure than chip and pin. This is because chip and pin cards “communicate” with the central system of the bank to ensure the card is authentic. Duplicating the chip and pin cards is not a fraud that has been reported in the press.
We believe that it is the responsibilities of the banks to do all they can to prevent such fraud and prevent the anguish…