PETER CHRISTOPHER
Senior Reporter
peter.christopher@guardian.co.tt
Credit card fraud is on the up in Trinidad and Tobago, but the Bankers Association of Trinidad and Tobago (BATT) has explained this is mainly due to a surge in online shopping post-COVID-19.
In a Joint Select Committee on Finance and Legal Affairs, which examined existing anti-fraud and customer protection systems in the financial services sector, Opposition MP Saddam Hosein noted there had been a decrease in debit card fraud since 2020. However, the reverse appeared to be true based on 2023 statistics with reports rising from "a plateau in 2020" to 2700 cases in December 2023.
BATT President Gayle Pazos explained the introduction of chip card EMV, that is smart chip systems recognised by Europay, Mastercard and Visa, had helped with instances of debit card fraud, which had previously been rampant due to card skimming.
"The debit card fraud, you definitely are seeing significant declines and that decline corresponds with the banks' rollout of chip EMV. That has seemed to put debit card fraud in check, " said Pazos, who explained that while skimming had been listed as a cybercrime, in most cases local banks had seen such cases at ATMs as opposed to online transactions.
However, she said credit card fraud statistics shot up as those cards became used more frequently for online purchases.
"We came through the COVID-19 period, that would have been down because people could not accept their goods. There were no shipments of anything and then as things opened back up a significant increase in online purchasing," said Pazos, who also added that the statistics showed that the instances of fraud compared to the overall number of purchases was relatively low.
"There is also a much larger increase in online purchases so the number of purchases has increased substantively over this same timeframe and what you are looking at is mere basis points if you look at the ratio of fraudulent transactions to overall transactions," said Pazos.
BATT member Richard Downie explained in most cases, these instances usually occurred when card information was obtained via phishing and other measures. However, he said in most cases, local banks were able to pick up on these cases quickly as card use in foreign or strange international locations would be flagged instantly.
During the JSC, BATT was also asked about measures in place to combat cyberattacks.
"Cybersecurity and phishing and social engineering are big issues. All member banks do, within their own levels as well as within the Bankers Association, promote many aspects of building awareness and education around how these schemes work. So we will be publishing either through our various LinkedIn and social media sites, Instagram or Facebook, things that promote and highlight the practice of what people are doing. So education is key. We continue to do things to help raise the educational awareness around how these schemes work when there's a new scheme identified. We try to get that information out there to the general public," said Downie.
The Co-operative Credit Union League of Trinidad & Tobago was also present at the JSC and asked to present its concerns with regard to cyber attacks and fraud.
The Credit Union league also noted that due to the make-up of its membership instances of fraud were also low. The league also noted the need for greater information to combat the increasing threat of cyber-attack, noting that the league was currently guided by the Commissioner for Co-operative Development on the issue. However, the league noted that unlike banks, credit unions were often guided by its membership in terms of decision making and as such called for stronger regulations to aid them with regard to these concerns.
BATT board member Nigel Baptiste said in most cases, the association was guided by suggestions of the Central Bank, but noted most local banks had invested in significant measures to address fraudulent activity which in some cases surpassed procedures utilised abroad.
"The Caribbean is actually very, very low in terms of our fraud ratio percentage relative to other countries in the world, and Trinidad, relative to other countries in the Caribbean, is also quite low," said Baptiste, "In the Caribbean generally, some of the metrics that we have in place and the monitoring systems that we have in place are better. And that's because we try to avoid the fraud."