Toronto Police have just arrested and charged 5 men with various counts of debit card, and point of purchase frauds, and skimming cards at Bank Machines.

Here is an excerpt from the Police News Release.


On Wednesday, September 19, 2012, the TPS Financial Crimes Unit and the TTC Special Investigations Unit launched Project “Rocket.”

It is alleged that:

- between June 24, 2012 and September 27, 2012, the accused purchased Metropasses using fraudulently obtained credit card data

On Thursday, September 27, 2012, police arrested five men in connection with the investigation.

It is further alleged that:

- the accused were in joint possession of 168 counterfeit debit cards and 29 fraudulently obtained TTC monthly passes

It is also alleged that:

- on Friday, September 28, 2012, police executed a search warrant at a home in the Parklawn Road/Lake Shore Boulevard West area

- police seized 105 counterfeit debit cards, numerous stolen Point of Sale Terminals, tools and electronics altered or intended for the specific use of compromising point of sale terminals, credit card reader/writers and accompanying computers used to write skimmed-card data to counterfeit debit cards, four computers and multiple external devices

 
There are a few things to look out for at point of purchase terminals where you use your debit card.

1) If you swipe your card, it does not work and they say, "oh try this other machine"....make a mental note of that, sometimes the one they give you to swipe first is to steal your card information.
2) If you are using the chip card....note HOW FAR the card  goes into the reader, if it goes in way too far, its' because they are stealing your swipe card information.  Once again make a mental note of your location and check your bank statements for the next couple of weeks to watch for missing funds.

Typically they will copy the card then make as many bank withdrawals as they can in a day at different machines.

Now for being burned at Bank Teller Machines watch this short video, it will show you what to look for so you don't get your Identification stolen.

 

Purse Snatchers in Supermarkets

Ladies, and especially seniors, watch out for purse and wallet snatchers in supermarkets, I personally know two seniors this has happened to this year.  Both had someone reach into their purses and steal their wallets.  They lost not only money, but credit cards, health cards, identification, photo's and other things.

It happens in seconds, all you have to do is turn your back for a moment, thieves are looking for the easiest targets, they work the supermarkets, that's why they go to them, and its not only men that are the thieves, but women as well.

First of all, go through your purse and wallet, make photo copies of all your ID and credit cards and other identifications, so if you ever do lose your purse or wallet or have it stolen, you have a record to start with.

Next, don't keep any single copies of sentimental photo's in your wallet or purse, make a copy and save the originals.  That's a good start.

When you are in the market place keep your purse closed and clasped or zipped shut, not lying open so one can reach in it easily, that's the first thing the crooks are looking for.  Keep your purse in front of you, not in cart behind you, like the lady in this video does.  Ideally keep it on your person, but if you rest it in the cart, put the strap so your hand can stay on it while holding the handle  of the pushcart.

Watch the video below to see just how quick it happens, remember there are criminals who purposely stalk supermarkets, don't be an easy mark.

Lies, Dam Lies & Statistics - How you are being lied to about the crime rate

Crime is not going down, all the headlines are saying that today, but it is all twisting of numbers and statistics.  Toronto, like a lot of cities has a huge violent crime problem, but you will hear the Chief say that crime trends are down.  How can statistics Canada and the Chief be wrong, because they twist the numbers and use improper denominators in their math to make crime seem rare, distant, & not worth worrying about.

You'll notice media and the Chief "flub" the word crime and "crime rate"......which are two totally different numbers....they will say the crime rate is down 7% across Canada, and most will take this at face value....but crime is not down 7% the "rate" of crime is down 7%. 

For example you are driving towards a wall in you car at 100 miles and hour.....your speed slows to 90 miles per hour as you hit the wall........well, your "rate" of speed when you hit the wall was down 10%, but you still hit the wall, just not as fast.

The crime "rate" is not a percentage....although the Chief and the media talk as if it is....the crime rate is based on the number of crime divided by 100,000 of population......that is not a percentage, a percentage would be number of crimes divided by 100 people.  So the number appears one thousand times smaller than a percentage.  That is the first way it works to make the number appear small.

A second way that number is distorted is by saying the crime rate for sexual assault level 1 is 62 per 100,000 people in the population, as Stats Canada says....sounds pretty rare right?   Wrong....first off 50 per cent of those 100,000 are male and are not likely to be raped....so that dilutes the number right there, you can essentially double whatever rate the police are showing.

Same as our gang problem and the homicide rate.  Depends on the year, but off the top 90% of Toronto's homicide victims by shooting are black men between the ages of 14 to 29....roughly.  We tout our Homicide rate as being 1.4 per 100k people, but not if you are Black and live in a housing project between the ages of 14 to 29......that murder rate, by the time you take our white people, females, and people outside of that age range would jump to a rate of 26 per 100k.....New York is currently at 6.6 for the general population.

So you can lie with numbers....and right now everybody seems to be doing that.  By the way, you do have a better chance of being involved in a violent crime in Toronto, then you do of being struck by lightening.

Why Keys By Themselves are Not Enough?

If you have valuables you care about protecting keys are not enough anymore.  Locks are very easy to defeat with a technique called "key bumping".  You can find a video on how that is done on my youtube channel.

Information on how to copy keys....even keys that are not allowed to be copied by their design, can be defeated.  You can read about how to do that simply here.

So what you need to do, is be careful about leaving your keys about or giving them to someone who may get them copied to come back and steal from you later.

Use some sort of an alarm system as a back up, even if it is not monitored, it will record for you if someone opened and entered your home or office with a key by the audit trail on the system.

If you are a woman and concerned about a stalker or an old boyfriend who had a copy of your key at one time....bite the bullet and pay to have the lock re-keyed to another key.

CCTV is another back up and is more affordable than it has ever been.

Just don't rely simply on keys anymore, they are not sufficient.

How Not to be a Victim of a Card Skimmer at the ATM

This is part of a new series called "Now I See" to help you to learn to see risks and dangers to your personal security.  Bank machines are are risk that can be managed, once you know what to look for.  Please share the video with friends.

Protect Your Kids - Lock up you prescription and non-prescription medications

Between 2001 and 2008 there has been a large increase in kids age 5 and under ending up in emergency rooms after having ingested some of their parents medications.

Prescription medicines as opposed to non-prescription medicines made up the majority of the cases, and cases with opiod painkillers like oxcycodone having huge increases.

It's strange how comfortable we have become with these drugs lying about, and no doubt the huge increases in medications prescribed means more will be out there.

By habit, we tend to put these in the "medicine cabinet"...usually a small awkward shaped, unlock-able space above our bathroom sinks.  Funny but experts will tell you that is probably the worst environment to store medications in.  Its not secure for one, and all the heat and steam and moisture can help to shorten the lifespan of some medications.

Many kids today are used to taking pills or seeing friends take them for sickness or adhd, so for a little one to climb up and grab them is not such an unlikely scenario.

But if you have older children or teenagers, you are not out of the woods either, kids have been know to take their parents medications like oxycodone, or to steal it from their friends parents when they visit.  They know that some pills can be used to get high, or to sell to other kids.

So I would suggest you find a place to lock up you medications, don't leave them out or lying around, where little hands, or stealing hands can get to them.  Invest perhaps in a safe for your bedroom, for both your medicine and your jewelry.

Better safe than sorry.

Giving your daughter an I-Phone? Get this App as a Start

Don't forget to read my previous entry of not showing off your I Phone so you don't get mugged, but if you have a daughter with an I Phone or you are giving one....consider putting this free app on the phone from the YWCA of Canada.

I don't think its the perfect app for protection, but it is a great free start. It has several functions and conveys info about date rape and other issues in a fashion.

I like the fact it will send out an emergency sms message and your location.....I don't have an I phone, but try it out, let us know.

You can get more info here.