ATM CRIME: NEED FOR REDESIGNING OF THE SYSTEM’S FUNCTIONALITIES It has now become like a musical chorus that we are in an age of science and technology. The world is often referred as global village with wonders of information communication technology enveloping the whole wide world. Scientists have made researches into virtually all field of human endeavours in which financial institution is not exempted. Such essences of their numerous researches have led to scientific phenomenon and the birth of inventions. In the banking sector of the economy, due to the a vast stress of manualling processing and computation of countless customers’ data, science and technology have helped to manufactured a device known as automated teller machine(ATM)(er ti: ‘em). ATM is a processor which is responsible for holding the software code; assembling and dissembling cells, providing access into the box, analyzing and distributing information in digitalized format and conveys customers’ profiles. Its work is to reduce human effort, simplify withdrawals and saves time. It dispenses cash upon computing command(s) and performs others of its functions more effectively and reliably than human effort. It has a card called ATM card. The card may be referred as “subscriber identification module (sim). These cards are made from solid-state semiconductor materials. They contained personal information about the person using the card in a silicon chip. These are few characteristics of automated teller machine. One thing that seemed missing in the above paragraphs is the safety of customers’ monies. The security of customers’ funds is of great importance and fundamentally forms the bearing for this write-up. A fortnight ago, my most elderly sister who by extension happens to be my sponsor and guardian had her bag snatched by unidentified hoodlums while returning from work on the wee hours of Monday evening being the 20th of May, 2013. The bag contained ladies’ accessories and other valuables including her ATM card. She screamed for help. Help! help! She requested. Ole! Thief-thief! She yelled. No one came to rescue her. The hooligans sometimes called yahoo-yahoo boys made away in the speed of light, they ran into the next street and faded away into the dark atmosphere. Immediately, it was done on her that her ATM card was in the stolen bag-she tried without success to alert her bank about the unfortunate incident even while the bank’s telephone was ringing-but no one was there to receive the distress calls. All her efforts to no avail prove abortive. On the following day being Tuesday, she rushed to bank to register her complaint. There in the banking hall while her account was being verify, the bitter news was let lose to her. There, her tympanic membrane vibrated to-and-fro in an irregular oscillatory motion as she screamed “oh goodness!” She was told that an unidentified person have withdrawn her life servings throughout the penultimate night. The image of the withdrawer gotten from the ATM machine was a man who wore a face cap beyond identification. As the news got to me, these questions dropped down like reel. Can the security operatives in the country apprehend and reprimand the perpetrators of this crime? Do they have the technological equipments and expertise to uncover such crime? How did those boys decode her ATM pin numbers? What does the bank intend to do? Do we need a redesigning of the system functionality? Yes, I think we do! Sometimes, these ATM machines perform signs and wonders even more than the new generational fire brand pastors and prophets do. Sometimes, you just insert your card into the machine and it tells you in a written form that it is either temporary out of service or cannot dispense cash at the moment. As soon as you are about entering your car, your phone will either ring or beep and the message is-“dear customer, N50,000 was withdrawn from your account and your new balance is N5,250…” Initially, you will forget that you just read the test message from your phone. It will look as if you are suffering from auditory hallucination. The next action is drama titled 30 Seconds of Madness where you soliloquy for few seconds. You begin by: “did I withdraw any money? This bank must be crazy- they shouldn’t joke with me o…” and the rest is history. At the vicissitude of this juncture, some of these ATM crimes could be drastically reduced if Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Financial regulatory bodies and others stakeholders in the sector team up with security agencies to curb the sector from this menace. Such decisive measures could not be limited to promulgating stringent laws, but may include redesigning of the identification and verification of the customer’s (operator)image by special photography device in the machine before the customer’s instructions or request is processed by the system. The machine could be design in such a way that it does not process any command made by an operator that wears dark glasses; face cap, hat, head ties or anything that covers the face beyond recognition. Better still; the machine could be design with the precision of responding to impulses of detecting and capturing of fingerprint (tomb print). With this, experts in the field of genetic-biotechnology and forensic science can carry out investigations should a crime is committed. Furthermore, government and private organizations should provide employments to the youths and find ways of taking these jobless youths that indulges in cybercrime and other anti-social activities form our streets.
Posted on: Fri, 31 May 2013 11:42:49 +0000
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