21
Mar
2017
By Calvin at 13:42 GMT, 8 years ago
Two incidents concerning banks have caught my ears and eyes in the last few days.
The first concerns some cash machines outside some London banks where pinhole cameras have been used to record people inputting theirs PINs. This is an old trick, but the latest cameras are even smaller and often the images are being transmitted live to the nearby thief via his/her laptop.
The advice given by the police is to always cover the keypad with your other hand/wallet/purse when punching in your PIN and that’s all the time and on every occasion; in the supermarket, a restaurant, at an ATM, a petrol station – everywhere!
The more recent story can be found in the Lancashire Telegraph online where the police are asking the public for help to identify a female suspect who stole £600 from an 84-year-old lady in Blackburn.
In this case it appears that the victim had withdrawn the cash from her bank with the intention of buying some foreign currency for a holiday. She had it in an envelope in her handbag. While she was shopping in the British Heart Foundation Shop in The Mall shopping centre it was taken. In effect then she suffered what the police call a ‘theft person’ (theft from the person). This theft is an old one that goes back to 24 November last year, but presumably the CCTV image has just come to light.
This particular crime shows us the importance of looking around us when we take out large sums of money from the bank; either from the cashier or from the ATMs outside and inside the bank. There are thieves who specialise in this type of theft – following people who have just pocketed a load of cash - and they are always interested in anyone who appears to be vulnerable, such as an elderly person.
There’s lots more advice on this website at the link below and those of you who read this and perhaps write a newsletter for your Neighbourhood Watch might want to bring these two matters to your readers’ attention.
Taking care at cash-points https://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/robbery-and-theft-risk/660/taking-care-at-cashpoints/
