A top official at one of the financial institutions that were hit by the island’s biggest Automated Teller Machine (ATM) breach in October last year has expressed satisfaction that the culprits have been dealt with.
Managing director and chief executive officer of Republic Bank (Barbados) Ltd Ian De Souza told a press conference today that he was “glad” to see reports that the Bulgarian nationals, who were charged with the offence, had been fined, and he warned that the bank had since ramped up its security.
De Souza was responding to questions from the media at the bank’s Independence Square location, as it launched a new product to help current and prospective Barbadian students to pay for their tertiary level education.
“The last most recent [fraudulent activity to affect the bank] was where you saw the Bulgarians, and I was very glad to see in the Press this week, you have two of them being escorted to jail . . . Of course in the business you always have people attempting to do this skimming thing. But we have not had anything as significant as that incident since,” he reported.
The two Bulgarian fraud convicts who had cleaned out the accounts of several customers across Barbados using ATMs and were caught attempting to leave the island last October with more than $340, 000, were fined $350, 000. They were scheduled to leave the island on Wednesday.
De Souza issued a warning to those who may be planning to carry out any similar fraudulent acts against the financial institution in the future.
“There are a lot of measures that we as banks put in place, including, and this should be a statement to the fraudsters, if they are trying to come to any of our ATMs they should smile because we have cameras on all of them. And we will catch you.
The technology that we use is very good, solid technology and invariably we are able to catch up with people who attempt to use our machines fraudulently,” warned De Souza.