Be vigilant! - Shoppers urged to look out for scammers

As Jamaicans rush to complete their last-minute holiday shopping, one financial institution is urging customers to be extra vigilant when conducting transactions online or using their credit and debit cards in stores and at ABMs.

Fraud Prevention Manager at the National Commercial Bank (NCB) Lloyd Parchment has advised that fraudsters are employing various schemes to skim cardholders' information, including using dummy point-of-sale (POS) machines and creating fake e-commerce websites.

He explained that during the festive season, criminals are usually very active, and NCB wants to encourage Jamaicans to be on the lookout to protect themselves against potential scams.

"We want our customers to be extra vigilant and exercise caution as they go about making their transactions. For example, shoppers should not allow merchants to swipe their cards on multiple machines as this may be an attempt to capture their information on a dummy POS machine," he shared.

Parchment said that the fraudsters swipe the card on a fake machine and then ask customers to enter their information, which they capture. Afterwards, they then try to swipe the card again on a different machine, telling the customer that the first transaction failed. He advises customers to immediately speak to management at the establishment, and if they still felt uncomfortable, they should contact their bank's customer service to investigate and take necessary precautions.

He also urged cardholders to be extra cautious about the websites on which they conduct business, noting that persons should pay close attention to the URLs of all websites and only shop from websites they know and trust.

"When shopping online, look out for the 's' in 'https' to be sure that the website is secure. Also, customers should be cautious about too-good-to-be-true deals on strange websites and only shop from websites you know and trust," he said.

Persons who have fallen victim to the schemes of fraudsters should immediately contact customer service or visit their bank to file a claim. NCB customers can also utilise the bank's newly introduced dispute resolution portal at https://chargeback.jncb.com, where they can report issues, track disputes, report a card as lost or stolen, block or unblock credit cards, and request a replacement card in a matter of minutes.