Public Urged To Protect Against Electronic Pickpocket Fraud

Newry, Mourne and Down area Policing and Community Safety Partnership (PCSP) is teaming up with the local banks to promote awareness in relation to crime prevention for the recently introduced contactless cards.

Newry Mourne and Down PCSP is providing card protectors (which have Radio Frequency IDentification RFID) to provide the practical protection to prevent your contactless card from being skimmed.

Chair of Newry, Mourne & Down PCSP  Cllr Harry Harvey said, “Fraud is on the increase as a new form of ‘electronic pick-pocketing’ and has emerged making the contactless cards a vulnerable target for criminals to make money. Financial Fraud Action UK conducted research on the amount of money fraudulently spent using the contactless card. This increased from £2.8million in 2015 to £7million in 2016. 

Cllr Harvey continued, “Pickpocketing may sound like something a bygone era that we read about in a Dickens novel, but as society and our technology develops, so too does the methods used by criminals to defraud us of our hard earned money.”

The cards will be widely available to customers from their local bank branches or by contacting the Newry Mourne and Down PCSP office on 02830313078 or by emailing: pcsp@nmandd.org

For further information on electronic fraud and scams, please visit:

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/campaigns/scamwiseni

or

http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

Photo Caption
Members from the Newry, Mourne and Down area Policing and Community Safety Partnership (PCSP) and local Banks and the PSNI raise public awareness of electronic pickpocket fraud.

L-R Debbie Woods Nationwide Building Society, Siobhan Fearon PCSP Manager, Sergeant Kelly Gibson Neigbourhood Police, Attracta Magennis First Trust Bank, PCSP Chairperson Councillor Harvey Harry,  Regina Quiqley Halifax, Emma Louise Murphy Bank of Ireland and Christine Cartmill PCSP.