Romanian Atm Thieves Behind 90% Of Uk Cashpoint Fraud.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2515917/Police-hunt-Romanian-ATM-thieves-90-UK-cashpoint-fraud.html

Are these an example of the very valuable skills that we hear so much about, all of which which some immigrants are bringing to this country?

[sp1814]

No AOG.

When people refer to skilled immigrants, they are normally talking about those with specific technical. For Instance, the company I work for has a contract with an India company to provide support for application development and support on a across a number of database solutions.

Then there are doctors and nurses employed by the NHS who have been trained abroad, and come to work in the UK.

This story is about theives, rather than skilled migrants, who provide value to the companies that employ them.

Did you get the two different kinds of migrants mixed up?

[2sp_]

Different kinds of migrants, sp?

Surely they are all the illegal, criminal kind?

(SARCASM ALERT)

[Svejk]

To be fair,AoG, a lot of them steal copper cable from beside railway lines. That must be quite hard work.

[sp1814]

2sp_

Ha ha - I know where you're coming from.

This statement in the Mail story is a little confusing though:

[i]The latest annual figures show that, in 2012, the top five countries for fraudulent activity on UK issued cards were USA (£23.4m), France (£7.9m), Luxembourg (£6.9m), Italy (£5.4m) and Ireland (£5.2m).[i]

I would've thought that Romania would have topped that list, based on the story's content?

The answer as bank customers is to be very aware of who is standing near you when you're withdrawing money. If you think that someone is should cover the ATM keypad (actually, best to get into the habit all the time).

Also, keep the telephone number of your bank on your mobile phone. If your card isn't returned during the transaction there should be a message on the screen stating that your card has been retained.

If no such message appears, then your should contact your bank immediately to get your card cancelled, because the machine will ALWAYS tell you if your card has been kept for whatever reason (it's built into the software that runs the machine).

At least that way, if the card is appropriated by one of these gangs, they won't be able to use it.

Also - as far as possible, don't withdraw money whilst drunk...for obvious reasons.

[Svejk]

As an aside. 30% of all crime committed in London last year was courtesy of Romanians. And they're not even here yet, lol.

[ladybirder]

LOL @ Svejk. Twice.

[Svejk]

Or another method might be to kick them out and stop inviting their sticky-fingered kin to replace them.

[sp1814]

Svejk

Your figure stating that 30% of crime in London is committed by Romanians is not accurate.

30% of crimes in London last year were committed by foreign nationals, of these half were from the EU.

So no matter how you look at these figures, it's impossible to conclude that 30% of crimes in London were committed by Romanians.

Even if Romania is an EU country (and I'm not sure whether they are yet), it would mean that every single Romanian living in London had been convicted of an offence last year.


Citation:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/06/metropolitan-police-foreign-nationals-deportation

Could it be that you misread your source?

[Svejk]

It would amaze me,Sp, if every one of them hadn't committed, at least,one crime each. How many got caught is up for debate.

[Svejk]

What's it got to do with the jocks,anyway? Have them all up in your dependant country.
It'll be good business for you. In a couple of years you'll probably be hoping to migrate to Romania for a better life. ;)

[sp1814]

Svejk

Okay...I think I see where you're coming from, but my understanding of what Romanians are like only comes through professional contacts (my company has an office in Bucharest, and my team look after their pharma applications.

Don't know where you got your opinion of Romanians from, but they're obviously very different from mine. They just seem like regular people, rather than a nation of thieves.

Terrible breakfasts though.

[FredPuli43]

Indeed it is, AOG. Specialist skills being drawn to this country, just as we once drew Maltese pimps (the Mifsud family, remember, in particular starred in organising the supply of toms to Soho ), and still draw Colombian pickpockets, who arrive as the first sign of Summer. We used to draw gangs of Nigerian credit card and cheque fraudsters but that trade seems to have gone and they now specialise in online fraud from the safety of Nigeria

[FredPuli43]

Pity is that such specialist skill is not applied in something legitimate in IT or computing.

Has the Daily Mail been the source of misleading statistics ? No, come on. If so that is hard to believe. Surely its standards are as high as those of The Economist or the Financial Times ? Those journals have readers who know about statistics and how to interpret them too.

[mushroom25]

we're quite good at producing our own skilled workers - I once heard a guy tell a tv reporter that his brother's job was "ram raider", in much the same way that others are bankers, electricians, etc.

[tonyav]

Romanian Atm Thieves Behind 90% Of Uk Cashpoint Fraud.


Well well, I am surprised.

[ummmm]

Wasn't he a minor who'd spent most of his life here?

[ludwig]

If our own thieves weren't so lazy we wouldn't have to import foreign ones to come over here and do all the crime.