A SIGNIFICANT increase in scams kept the police Fraud Squad busy last year as the unit probed reports of fraudulent transfers of land, employee theft, credit-card fraud, identity theft, and other allegations.

The Fraud Squad said it received 796 reports last year, compared with 498 in 2007. It is estimated that persons were defrauded of just under J$306 million, US$2.9 million and £8,050 in 2008.

These figures do not include money defrauded from persons overseas in the 'Montego Bay Lottery Scam' and the numerous questionable investment schemes which collapsed during the year and which are now being probed by the Police Organised Crime Unit.

In 2007, loss due to fraud was reported at just under J$218 million, US$781,000 and £8,500.

According to the Fraud Squad, last year, Jamaicans suffered at the hands of unethical motor-vehicle dealers, who ripped off $67 million from unsuspecting buyers and sellers.

Motor-vehicle fraud

Sixty-three cases were reported to the police, in which scammers took money from individuals to import vehicles and failed to deliver, while other car dealers took vehicles from individuals, promising to sell them, but did not hand over the money to the owners.

Sixteen cases of fraudulent land transfer involving properties with a total value of J$85 million were reported to the police.

Other fraud cases which made it on the police radar last year included employee theft, which resulted in entities losing just over J$63 million.

ABM fraud

There were 22 cases of automated banking machine fraud where persons, by trickery or other means, obtained information which allowed them to remove J$4.9 million from accounts.

Credit-card fraud also remained a major problem, with at least J$1.2 million stolen.

But the police Fraud Squad says that figure might be understated, as the cases are reported to the police only when the banks refuse to settle.

"If individuals give their pin numbers to relatives or close friends, then the banks might not readily repay the money lost," head of the Fraud Squad, Superintendent Colbert Edwards, told The Sunday Gleaner.

According to Edwards, persons who used their credit cards at some hotels and business entities were particularly hard-hit by fraud as dishonest employees made several purchases using the cards.

Job-seekers were also taken for a ride by unscrupulous persons claiming to operate employment agencies.

Jamaicans were fleeced of more than J$80 million after paying to be placed in jobs, mainly overseas.

The police were also called in to probe numerous cases of remittance fraud, where individuals used forged documents to collect J$93,000 and US$3,000 from remittance companies.

With these and a number of other similar cases, the Fraud Squad, with a staff of 23, had its hands full during the year.

No supporting legislation

But that is not the major worry for the man who runs its day-to-day operations.

Superintendent Edwards charged that the Fraud Squad was being hampered by a lack of supporting legislation to address some crimes.

"Legislation has not kept up with the times," Superintendent Edwards stated, as he pointed to the 26 cases of identity theft reported to the police last year.

Edwards told The Sunday Gleaner that, faced with technicalities, the police have to be increasingly creative in making criminal charges stick. "Where the theft is electronic, the law does not directly speak to it."

But that has not stopped the Fraud Squad, which cleared up 579, or 73 per cent of the 796 cases reported in 2008.

To report suspected cases of fraud, call the Fraud Squad at 922-2374.