The steady stream of technological advancements intended to make people's lives easier is also making it easier for savvy crooks to separate folks from their hard-earned money.

Sgt. Laura Malo, head of the Surrey RCMP's fraud section, said the rate of fraud-based crime locally is growing exponentially.

"We've increased pretty much 100 per cent over the last four years, only because technology has become so easily accessible." That's an increase of about 25 per cent each year. It's happening everywhere, not just Surrey.

"Anything made for the good, the bad guys can take and use against you," Malo notes.

Some people consider this to be victimless crime, but it's not.

"You are actually getting punished to pay the higher interest rates on credit cards because of all these frauds going on," Malo said.

The recidivism rate for fraud is 100 per cent.

"That's all they know." Malo's crew recently asked one suspect what drives her and the woman replied, "It's the thrill of not getting caught." She said her section has roughly 15 "targets" that are in and out of jail constantly.

"They are the ones who are known as the computer whizzes that make these cards," Malo said. "We have 15 targets that go into jail, they do their time, come out and that's all they know, that's all they do, and people know that's what they do." Their crimes also fuel other criminal activity, like the drug trade. They often get their victim's receipts, which have been carelessly tossed in the garbage by a restaurant or other business, from desperate drug addicts.

"If I can go into a dumpster and I can get your stolen credit card number and I can sell it for a rock (drugs), I'm going to go in there and get them all," Malo said.

One of the latest and most frightening technological advances enables criminals equipped with a tiny device hidden in a handbag or some such thing to scoop up their victim's credit card information by simply walking by.

"It's the latest technology to come in," Malo said. "If you're in a crowded bus or a subway, they can just walk by." One way to protect yourself from this particular type of theft is to have a lead-lined wallet or purse.

It's based on RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification, a feature commonly found in new credit cards that enables customers, for the sake of improved convenience, to make a quick swiping pass to purchase gas, for example.

"It seems to be the latest and greatest safety feature on your cards, and they would like to put it on your debit cards," Malo said.

The crooks can then take your info and add it to a gift card. Using a magnetic stripe reader-writer (encoder) and a computer.

"Your number will go on the gift card." The merchants don't know that, swipe the card, read it as approved, and the thief goes on his "merry way." Malo noted that reloadable cards can be reloaded on a computer with Wi-Fi, or wireless networking, "and I can't, as a police officer, get you because I don't have an IP address because you've taken that off a Wi-Fi." The equipment needed to carry out these crimes - reader-writers, embossers, etc. - can all be bought online.

"It's not illegal to have this stuff yet," Malo said. "What you do with it is." Malo said her section is working with Crown counsel to fight technology-based fraud, which can be difficult to prosecute because the Crown has to prove the person using the illegal card knew it was illegal.

In the meantime, she suggests that using cash is the best way to go.

As for bank machines, Malo personally won't use drive-through ATMs or freestanding ATMs like the type you might find in a bar.

That's because they're generally easier for fraudsters to jimmy by installing false fronts and pinhole cameras to grab customers' information.

"They go to the point where they will replicate an entire drive-through." tzytaruk@thenow newspaper.com