Chapter 7-Media Article

Canada Fraud Scheme Linked to Terrorist Activities
CanWest News Service-Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Recently, it has been discovered that a criminial cell has been operating across Canada is funnelling millions of dollars to Dubai in order to fund terrorist activities through a sophisticated credit/debit card frad scheme. This crime group makes an extremely huge profit by doing so. Within one a weekend in Calgary, a million dollars will be madde. Also, the group travels in a "circuit" from Vancouver to Calgary to Toronto to Montreal. The members of the grops live on nothing because they send all their money to fund terrorist activities in Dubai and other countries. Such crime is done with the help of improved technology which involves the insertion of a memory chip to record data into keypad terminals that customers use at retail counters, restaurants, etc. Then the criminials target the little black terminals handed to a customer to punch in numbers by simply unplugging them and carrying them off (as they are left on the counter by numerous merchants). Next, the criminals will modify it to add a memory chip to the terminal. Since the terminals are generic, and many retail outlets use the same kind, they become fairly easily transferable. As a card is swiped, the data goes to the credit card company. Also, the criminials use the memory card that's placed inside which records magnetic data for them. After a couple weeks of leaving the memory card in there, the criminals go back and steals it. Thus people's protection for credit cards is lost there.
As for debit cards, a camera is hidden in the ceiling to record the PIN numbers. The camera will be hooked up to a digital recording device with a hard drive that can sometimes run for 30 days.
Experts suggest it is expected for us to see more and more of this international criminal activity as setting up these operations is fairly easy. Proceeds from credit card fraud is usually converted to cash. As well, organized criminal groups will send in "teams of people" from other areas of the country to attack ATM accounts. And this type of crime is embracing technology and maximizing it.

Relationship to Ch.7-Money, Debit/Credit Cards, and Bank Security
In my opinion, I think this kind of crime, debit card fraud, occurs almost everywhere. However, because this specific crime is probably more seroius and needs more attention paid on because is involves a bigger group of criminials, especially terrorists, and a much larger sum of money involved.
Currently, within Canada's money system, credit cards are not considered as money. Instead, they are considered as an instant loan, or in other words, an instant access to money. As for credit cards, they are simply a way to purchase so that money is taken immediately out of one's bank account. Thus if there is not a sufficient amount of money in one's bank account, the purchase will not be processed. However, they are still not considered to be money but an instant access to your money.
Because of the advance in technology that we have in our modern day, I think there really is no way that the bank can fully guarantee for the safety of any counterfit and fraud debit/credit cards, money, and etc. No matter what, I think people, especially criminals like these, will find new ways to make money illegally. Personally, I think the current security features that we have with debit/credit cards is not enough because it is simply just a signature and a password. Nevertheless, there is really no other way to actually improve the security features that we have on our current debit/credit cards. The only security feature that may be added onto the cards would be fingerprints. Perhaps, in order to process a transaction through a debit/credit card, there must be a valid signature and scan of one's fingerprint. Other than that security feature, I think the only way for people to prevent fraud credit/debit cards is by not putting as much money in one account altogether. That way if one's account information was to ever get in the hand of a criminal, then their loss will decrease as there are also money placed in other accounts. All in all, I think it is up to the consumer to keep an eye out for fraud credit/debit cards and report invalid transactions of money right away.