NCJ Number
137598
Journal
Law Enforcement Bulletin Volume: 61 Issue: 7 Dated: (July 1992) Pages: 1-3
Date Published
1992
Length
3 pages
Annotation
The police in Milwaukee, Wisc. and other areas have established a simple program, in cooperation with local banks and other financial institutions, to reduce confidence games that involve persuading victims to make large cash withdrawals from their bank accounts.
Abstract
The program was developed after a bank fraud suspect agreed to explain the methods of successful con artists. The offender revealed that regular police methods of investigating fraud were often ineffective due both to the lack of awareness of the need to avoid using police radios when closing in to arrest a suspect and to the focus on offenders rather than on preventing victims from rapidly withdrawing cash from their accounts. The program has two parts: the use of a cash withdrawal alert form that describes the methods of con artists and telephone calls from bank tellers to the bank manager when a customer's cash transaction varies from the customer's usual pattern. The program has sharply reduced successfully completed frauds and is being used statewide in Wisconsin and Illinois.