Electronic Fund Transfer Systems Fraud

Find out how criminals and crooked bank employees access and steal from your account--either through the ATM machine or from the "inside." This book highlights scores of actual incidents involving lost or stolen ATM cards and wire transfer fraud initiated by sharp financial swindlers. The study focused on automated-teller-machine (ATM) transactions and wire transfers (WT). Data solicitation focused on the nature and extent of ATM and WT for the 16 banks for 1983-84 (ATM) and 1980-84 (WT). Based on the 1983-84 data, the annual nationwide bank loss due to ATM fraud is between $70 and $100 million. Losses are approximately $200 per incident. Lost of stolen cards are the leading cause of ATM fraud and bank losses. Banks could reduce ATM fraud by properly using computer technology when designing their ATM systems. A total of 207 WT incidents occurred for 1980-84. Most of the incidents were errors leading to either fraudulent absconding with funds or exposure without loss of principal, as opposed to intentional fraudulent acts. As with ATM's, computers could be used more effectively to prevent WT fraud, particularly those resulting from clerical errors. Chapter tables, 44 references, data-collection instruments