Oconee Investigator: Monitor Bank Accounts Closely

Oconee County authorities are investigating an influx of reports of fraudulent debit card transactions.

On Tuesday, Lt. David Kilpatrick, chief investigator of the rifled through about 40 reports of identity theft that have occurred since March 5. 

The stack of reports on his desk are the result of citizens' debit card numbers that have been stolen and used to make purchases under the assumption of the identity of the cardholder. 

"When a victim reports that his debit card was fraudulently used, say in North Carolina, the crime, for our department, is investigated as identity theft," said Kilpatrick. 

The investigations department can't investigate the transactions as fraud, he said, because those cases can only be pursued in the jurisdiction where the unauthorized transaction actually occurred.

This type of identity theft is nothing new, Kilpatrick said, but what is uncommon is the amount of such reports that have been filed since the beginning of March.

So many citizens have been filing reports that the Sheriff's Office has streamlined the paperwork involved.  Instead of a standard 5-6 page incident report, a victim is asked to fill out a one-page form and attach an affidavit from his bank.  However, if the victim desires to speak with a deputy for any reason, he may still do so, Kilpatrick said.

The spike in identity theft in a short time frame grabbed his attention, and he is in the process of investigating commonalities between victims to determine if there is any correlation between where purchases have been made over the last 30 days.

"It appears that the card processors that service various vendors are being hacked, which is not a fault of the stores themselves," he said. 

The Clarke County Sheriff's Office is also seeing an increase of these reports, and Kilpatrick said he is working with investigators of financial crimes in that county to try to locate the sources. 

Recent victims are customers of different banks, he said, and usually three to four charges are made in the amount of $40-$75 each before the issuing bank notices a change in a consumer's buying patterns and freezes the account.  Generally, the transactions occur out of state in places such as North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California and Tennessee, he said.

"We work (the cases) to the hilt, checking every lead that we have and making as many charges as possible," he said.  Still, most cases are "exceptionally cleared" -- investigated until all leads are exhausted -- and many are categorized as inactive -- those that have no leads to follow, he said.

Marisa Reynolds, Group Vice President of said the bank encourages customers to check their accounts on a regular basis, every day or every couple of days if possible, through online and mobile banking or by calling a 24-hour customer service phone number.

"If there is a transaction to dispute, they should call the bank immediately and come and fill out some paperwork," she said. "We will block the existing card and reorder a new card."

Consumers are protected by the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (Regulation E) through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, she explained, and their money is credited back to their accounts usually within a few days.

"All banks here are very conscious of this and do what they can to ease the troubles ... to make it as painless as possible for (customers)," Reynolds said.

Oconee State Bank, like many others, takes precautions against fraud, she said.  For example, the bank has hired a vendor to monitor activity and call customers to verify transactions that appear out of the ordinary.

Still, someone is left to incur the loss when unauthorized transactions take place, she said, and 95 percent of the time that falls on the banks. 

"It's a cost of doing business," she said.

Kilpatrick said employees at businesses that accept debit cards as a form of payment can help thwart criminal activity by always asking for identification.

Although he says there is no way to completely protect oneself against this crime short of stopping use of debit cards, Kilpatrick offered some advice to consumers.

"Never sign the back of your card ... it's better to write 'See ID' there instead," he said.