Secret Service aids with fraud cases

The Secret Service has partnered with Public Safety and the Milledgeville Police Department to investigate the continuing debit card frauds affecting students, faculty and some Milledgeville residents. As the investigation continues those guilty remain unidentified.

As of March 1, there were over 105 reported debit card frauds at Georgia College, including both students and staff. The Milledgeville Police Department had an estimated 27 reported cases.

“The sheer number of victims is so large,” said Public Safety Detective Michael Baker. “We can track down the suspects all day long and we want to, but that is not going to stop the problem. We have to stop the source and the person who is stealing the numbers and duplicating these cards.”

The Secret Service was asked to join the investigation because they have worked many similar cases.

“The (Secret Service) brought some of their resources that we don’t have available to us,” Baker said. “They were able to check out one of our locations that we believe is compromised. They were able to extract some information and are in the process of further analyzing it in the hopes of tracing the original person that began the breach.”

However, many details of the investigation remain hazy. Whereas Public Safety confirmed that the compromise is occurring at an off-campus establishment in Milledgeville, Dray Swicord, the Chief of Detectives for Milledgeville Police Department, cannot confirm this.

Baker suspects that the central perpetrators may have never been to Milledgeville and it was a possible system compromise, “like online hacking,” however, Swicord suggested that the compromise could be at a downtown establishment and may involved use of the university’s Wi-Fi.

“At this point, I don’t think anyone can clearly say if its off-campus or on-campus,” Swicord said. “Yet, no particular business has been pinpointed to have been the source of the compromise.”

One fact is clear: the incoming reports of fraud are declining in number, which could mean that the perpetrator is running out of debit card numbers or has stopped selling them temporarily or has moved on.

As victims begin to be refunded their money and are appointed a new debit card, Detective Baker said students are not those solely suffering from the fraud.

“Even though we have (105) victims the banks are refunding the money. So it’s really the banks that are the victims here. They are losing a lot of money in this,” Baker said.

Yet, those who had debit card fraud have still experienced problems having their money refunded. Bryan Smith, senior mass communication major, became aware of a suspicious $250 charge on Feb. 20. The fraud occurred at the Wal-Mart in Eatonton.

“The biggest hassle was waiting until the charge was officially posted to my account before I could make a claim,” Smith said. “The charge occurred on a Friday and wasn’t posted until the following Tuesday. Once it was posted, I talked with a representative at the local branch. She made a call to fraud monitoring, and they recorded my information. From there, I just waited until the money was refunded.”

As new video surveillance of suspects using the stolen card numbers are obtained and both departments continue researching, Baker hopes that a strong lead will come to resolve the situation.

“I feel like we are getting close. It is just that we have to go through a lot of people to get to the source. That is going to take some time and need cooperation on their part,” Baker said.

The four suspects Public Safety originally identified are now believed to be those below the main hacker responsible for selling the card numbers.

Posted by Chelsea Thomas on Mar 10 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.