Police say lottery scammers have increased methods of data mining

By Kimone Witter    

 

The Communication, Forensics and Cybercrime Division (CFCD) of the Jamaica Constabulary Force says lottery scammers have increased their methods of data mining to carry out their nefarious activities.

 

But Deputy Superintendent Maurice Goode says the division has been successful in assisting investigators with analysing digital data from devices confiscated by the police during arrests.

 

DSP Goode says between 2016 and 2023, 450 people were arrested for lottery scamming activities. Of that number, more than 400 have been charged, 29 extradited and 62 convicted.

 

Addressing a breakfast forum hosted by the Global Services Association of Jamaica on Thursday, the senior cop said the division has been increasing its capacity for successful prosecutions by having analysts engage in continued training. 

 

"We recently trained them in malware investigation, and we have a course coming up in a few months time in network currency, because we need to go into the network as well and to see where persons are hiding and how they are doing the data mining."

 

He said the CFCD will also continue to assist the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector in ensuring persons are deterred from participating in lottery scamming activity. 

 

"Once you get persons being charged, being put behind bars, and they know that there is a strong possibility of them being convicted, it makes them think twice before they seek to enter into an activity like this," he reasoned. 

 

The JCF Data Forensic Analyst made a case to National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang for the division to be given additional resources, arguing that this would allow even more training which could keep the division up to date in the fast-changing cyberspace.

 

Meanwhile, Anand Biradar, President of the Global Services Association of Jamaica, said he expects to see a reduction in lottery scamming activities in a few months.

 

Call centres are considered the number one feeder of information to lottery scammers.

 

Several incidents of lottery scamming have been reported among employees in recent years, leading to arrests.

 

Mr. Biradar said work has been ongoing within the private security industry to identify more culprits. 

 

"It did increase during the COVID or just post COVID era, but now it would have subsided a bit. But there are private security companies coming up with solutions that has given me some sort of assurance that in about six to 12 months, we should be in a better place in identifying, deterring, and finding these people so that they do not continue to make violations and continue forward without any consequences" he said.