ORGANIZED crime in
this country took a sub-
stantial hit last week in

‘Toronto.

A two-year investigation
‘involving the RCMP and
* police forces from Ontario
“and Quebec, dubbed Project
, Osada II, resulted in the take
‘down of 37 significant players
in the Eastern European or
. Russian “maffiya.” But,
‘unfortunately i it is but a mere
:drop in the bucket of filth
that is organized crime in this
-country.

| At the same time police
‘were trying to warn the pub-

ic about debit card fraud

being done by elements of
Asian organized crime, pri- .
marily the Dai Huen Ja or.
Big Circle. | :

On the surface the two
events might seem to be
unconnected, but the debit ,
card warning came as a ‘result
of a seizure made in-October
daring the, Osada II project.

olice seized two'machines

ordinary keypads we all use -
daily at stores... |
orerIN allow the

i ntainied about yo mn
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crime and
punishment

Calgary, which occurred at
the beginning of October,
where a female student used
her debit card at an electron-
ics store at seven o'clock in
the evening. By seven the
next morning her bank
account was being accessed at
ATMs, in restaurants and
other retail outlets.

When she brought the
matter up to her bank, she
was referred to the Calgary
police who were of little assis-

.tance since the amount

involved was under $5,000,
an unofficial benchmark for

_ busy police departments and’
lazge Mountie detachments in
fraud cases...

Becanise she was a student
“who worked part-time to
through university, she di
tose much money in relative
terms, but to her it might —
well have been thousands. It

‘took her two months of fight-

_ing with the bank « get
reimbursed, a decision that
was only made last week.

~ In the early part of the
summer, the Canadian. -

. Banker’s Association issued an”

alert avout the hand-held

But the document clearly
demonstrates that what Soave
referred to as “isolated” is
anything but. The briletin
refers to a “skimmer” seized
by an Asian Investigation
Unit in Toronto. The skim-
mer is not much bigger than
a pager. It is designed to be
worn ona beit, i in a waiter’s
waistband or in any one of a
hundred ways.

Let me quote from the
banker’s bulletin: “This skim-
ming device is manufactured
solely for the purpose of read-
ing, capturing and transmit-
ting full magnetic stripe data
obtained illegally from legiti-
mate credit and debit cards.

“These ¢ skinumers
are capable of capturing hun-
dreds of pieces of credit/debit
ecard account data ... this data
can be sold or encoded ona
counterfeit card within hours
without the knowledge of the
legitimate card holder.”

_ Here’s how the scam
works.

ng member

appro es a store clerk, 2
waiter or a ges station atten-
dant, someone who o generally
speaking doesn’t make that
much money. The person is

‘given the skimmer and told to

swipe as many custcmer cards
as possible through i it over the
course of a shift.

Later, when the skimmer is
given back to the "gangster,
the employee is given cash for
each number swiped. -
Depending on the type of

~ ¢éard, it can be as much as $50
» for the swipe of a gold credit -
~ card. Easy money for dome-..
: one making $8 or $10 an

hour. And how easy is it for

‘the employee to swipe your

card into 4 skimmer?
' How often co you give
your credit card ta a waiter?

“Sor yor cable card 90 4 Bae

Wednesday, December 15, 1999 — Nath Shore News - 7

banking system

station attendant? How often
do you actually pay attention
to what that person docs or
indeed, how often are you
not even in the same part of
the room as your card, such
as in a restaurant or a pub?
One of the interesting
points of all of this is the clear
demonstyation of the global-
ization of organized erime.
The apparent co-operation
berween the Dai Huen Jai
and the maffiya is a sign of
the new order of things.
Profits ge up if the gangsters
aren vr at war with gach other.
¢ gangsters are beginning
to redlize this. ' -
Asians gangs will do busi-
ness with Felis Angels. In
Quebec the Angels are in bed
with the Irish mob and the
Italians. The Russians, per-
haps the most ruthless of the
lot, will do business with any-
one,
Police intelligence reports
indicate that the Eastern
European crime groups are

involved in mur. ler, extortion, '

drug wafficking, counterfeit-

ing, prostitution, money taun-
dering, organized immigra-
tion fraud and tobacco and
weapons smuggling. Nice
resume.

For far too long the politi-
cians of this country have
ignored the threat of orga--
nized crime. Primarily because
- the citizenry aren’t really
bothered by it, believing it. |
doesn't affect the average Joc.

But it does. As evidenced
by what happened in. ;
‘Toronto, organized crime

activity threatens our very
‘banking system and the police
-_ and the bankers are very ner-.
vous about it. So too, should
you be. ,

to a waiter.
—— lknight@direct.ca

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time you hand your Visa card

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