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Neighbourhood Watch Newsletter November 2003, Area LTB1 Bridle Estate (NHW78)

Henk Harberts Guest Speaker, PartySafe Program, Trick ATMs, Email Scam, Police Crime Report.

By Malcolm Lawrence - 6th November 2003 - Back to News

Neighbourhood Watch Area LTB1, Bridle Estate.

Area Coordinators Carmen Cook 5134 1920, Val. Bartholomeusz 5133 9685.

Next Meeting

When: Monday 17th of November 2003.

Time: 7:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Where: Salvation Army Hall,

Bridle Road, Morwell.

Guest Speaker: Henk Harberts, Community Safety Planner, Latrobe City, will be at the meeting to discuss the laneway between Kurt Street and the Princes Way and other matters relating to Community Safety. All residents are invited to attend this meeting.

PartySafe Program:

The end of year and new year celebrations will soon be in full swing. You may be intending to have a party as part of these celebrations. To help make your party a success the following has been reprinted from the August News Letter.

Hosting a party at home or at a local venue can be heaps of fun, and you’ll want to have a night to remember. However, you’ll want your party to be remembered for all the right reasons, not because one of your guests got intoxicated or because your party was gatecrashed!

The PartySafe Program has been developed by the Victoria Police in collaboration with the Victorian Department of Justice. The PartySafe initiative is a key crime prevention tool in your area, and will minimise the risk of intoxicated guests or gatecrashers ruining your party.

To register with PartySafe, all you need to do is fill in the registration form available from your police station, also a PartySafe information kit is available. Then submit the form to the police station to register your party at least two weeks before it is to be held. The form will provide the police with the information they need to know, if they are called to your party to deal with a disturbance.

More information on PartySafe can be obtained from the Neighbourhood Watch web site. Go to www.neighbourhoodwatch.com.au click on Latest News scroll down to PartySafe. The PartySafe registration form can be downloaded by clicking on the PartySafe Form link.

Always Remember, If you are unable to handle the situation, call Victoria police on 000

Trick ATMs:

Card trapping devices are in use in Melbourne.

Recently a female tried to use an ATM in Balwyn where the ATM took her card. There was no indication on the ATM as to why the card had been taken. An unknown male person standing next to the girl informed her that the same thing had happened to him, and all he did was enter his PIN a number of times and the card came out. The girl tried this but the card did not return, so she left the ATM with plans to contact the bank in relation to the card. Shortly after, funds were withdrawn from her account at numerous ATMs in Melbourne.

Investigators believe that the man standing next to the ATM was "shoulder surfing" the girl and had seen the PIN of the card as she typed it in and once she had left, removed the card by using the card trapping device.

Some weeks later when a security guard went to withdraw funds from an ATM , he noticed that the card entry slot was sticking out further than normal. He then found that the entry slot was in fact covered with a piece of black plastic designed to look like the entry slot and attached by double-sided sticky tape. He removed the plastic attachment, and as he did so he found a length of video tape attached to the back in the form of a loop, to trap the card and allow for its removal later by criminals.

It appears that the use of these types of devices may be on the rise in Victoria. When using an ATM keep a look out for any foreign devices attached to it, and for suspicious people loitering in the vicinity. (from Neighbourhood Watch Sentinel)

Police Crime Report for October 2003 N.H.W. Area LTB1 Bridle Estate

Due To Privacy Considerations NOT ALL Offences For This Area Are Listed

• 3/10/2003 Wattle Tree Cres. Property damage in the front garden of a house.
• 5/10/2003 Waratah Drive Theft of a motor vehicle.
• 12/10/2003 Cherry Crescent Theft from the front garden of a house.
• 14/10/2003 Airlie Bank Road Forced entry and burglary at a unit.
• 17/10/2003 The Avenue Property damage to a house.
• 24/10/2003 Waratah Drive Property damage.
• 26/10/2003 Wattle Tree Cres. Property damage.
• 26/10/2003 Wyung Drive Property damage.
• 26/10/2003 Wattle Tree Cres. Four instances of property damage.
• 26/10/2003 Dargo Crescent Property damage to a house.
• 28/10/2003 Airlie Bank Road Forced entry and burglary at a unit.

Summary of Stolen Items for the Above Offences

6 Electrical Appliances, 1 Cash, 1 Household Items, 1 Jewellery, 5 Personal Property.

1 Motor Vehicle Stolen,

2 Offenders Processed for any reported offence in the area.

Email Scam:

About 300 internet banking customers were fooled by a Russian email scam and revealed their internet banking passwords to fraudsters.

The bank customers received an email supposedly from their bank, asking them to confirm their email address by following a link to a fake website. Once at the bogus site they were asked to enter their passwords, so the criminals could now have access to their accounts.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: malcolml@dcsi.net.au

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