Jefferson County Regional Financial Crimes Task Force: Watching over your wallet

Crime these days looks less and less like a cat burglar with a black eye mask and more like a shadowy figure typing away at computer. But being the victim of a crime can still be a harrowing experience, especially when that crime leads to the loss of property.

In response, representatives from law enforcement agencies ranging from the Vestavia Hills Police Department to the United States Secret Service have joined together to combat financial crime as a united front.

In 2015, former District Attorney Brandon Falls began the process of establishing a financial crimes task force of investigators at the county and municipal levels. The following year, the team was joined by the Secret Service, and the Jefferson County Regional Financial Crimes Task Force was born.

The task force is made up of 16 investigators, including five Secret Service agents and investigators from Jefferson County, Homewood, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Alabaster and Birmingham, as well as special retail investigators from Target and Walmart Global. Of the local municipalities on the task force, Vestavia Hills has the most detectives, with three of its officers working on cases for the task force in addition to other VHPD duties.

‘Target rich’ and vulnerable

VHPD Lt. Steve Gurley, one of Vestavia’s representatives on the task force, said the greater Birmingham area has become a hub for a variety of financial crimes, from fraud, counterfeiting and forgery to embezzlement and exploitation of the elderly.

Vestavia and Mountain Brook are particularly susceptible to financial crime, Gurley said, because of the concentrated amount of residents with high incomes.

“They go where the money is,” he said of the type of criminals the task force deals with.

Gurley said this leads to the two cities being extremely “target rich,” and it’s an irresistible call to those looking to make money through fraudulent means.

Additionally, Birmingham is particularly susceptible to credit card fraud because of a trend of retailers continuing to use swipe technology for card transactions, rather than smart payment chip technology.

This trend continues despite the fact credit card issuers such as Visa and MasterCard decided in October 2015 that the liability of credit card fraud would shift to retailers and financial institutions if the companies did not invest in the new chip technology.

“If you’re going to create or manufacture fraudulent credit cards, this is a good area to come to because we’re still swiping cards,” Gurley said.

But the emergence of chip technology is a bit of a double-edged sword.

Nick Steen, the task force’s assistant special agent in charge for the Secret Service, explained that chip technology has reduced instances of fraud from those hacking retailers, like the high-profile breach of Target store data in 2013, but as chip technology has grown, the use of skimmer technology has increased where it had been on the decline.

“Skimming has really gone rampant,” he said.

This is particularly true with ATMs and fuel pumps, as the requirement for businesses to switch over to chip technology for those devices has been extended until 2020.

Steen also said an emerging trend in skimming crimes has been the use of Bluetooth technology. Where before law enforcement might be able to examine surveillance footage or stake out a location to wait for the criminal to return for the device, now data can be retrieved simply by parking near it.

Strength in numbers

“The bad guy doesn’t know where our jurisdiction lines are,” Gurley said, explaining that most of the time, the crimes are committed in multiple areas within the same time frame, or perpetrators come from out of state, mimicking drug traffickers.

That’s why all members of the Jefferson County task force also are sworn U.S. Marshals, meaning that even if an investigation takes them across state lines, they can continue to investigate and make arrests.

Like those in Jefferson County, municipalities and local law enforcement agencies around the country are partnering across jurisdictional lines to combat financial crime, and many are partnering with federal law enforcement as well.

Tony Ball, a detective for the Atlanta Police Department, said their metropolitan area, which includes multiple municipalities and counties, also has formed a task force.

“It’s a great learning tool once anybody gets involved with other organizations,” he said.

Ball, Steen and Gurley referred to the concept of a multi-jurisdictional task force as a “force multiplier,” where what would have been impossible for one police department to investigate due to budget and manpower constraints is made possible by forming a united front.

“We have more resources than the average detective would have,” Gurley said. 

And so far, it seems to be working in Jefferson County.

Steen said they have had about 50 state arrests and 20 federal arrests since the task force was formally initiated in February 2016.

“It is a market increase for our numbers,” he said.

Residents key

While most  is intangible, officials said there are ways that regular residents can protect their information and assets.

First, and the most obvious thing, Steen said, is to be on the lookout for anything that seems suspicious when it comes to using a card, like obvious tampering with a fuel pump or what looks like a skimmer, and reporting that to authorities.

Additionally, Steen said, debit cards should never be used at fuel pumps, because they are the easiest to compromise and are directly linked to a bank account.

Ball said people should treat anything with personal or financial information — including checks, credit cards or other forms — like cash and not leave it lying around or sitting in a car or mailbox all day.

In addition to direct information theft, Gurley said a major thing to be on the lookout for are direct scams, especially online phishing attempts or phone scams.

“Do not respond to phone calls about overdue bills,” he said, emphasizing government agencies and utilities will never ask for alternative forms of payment, such as pre-paid credit cards or money orders.

Beyond protecting oneself, Gurley said it is imperative that residents in Jefferson County report suspected fraud to their local police, who can in turn report it to the task force.

“There is an avenue for investigation,” he said. “We’re more than happy to investigate.”