The Tribune

THE Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) chief executive yesterday urged businesses and consumers to be “vigilant” and “take every precaution” to avoid becoming victims of crime this Christmas season.

Edison Sumner expressed concern over the “startling” increase in cyber crime and credit card fraud.

Speaking with Tribune Business on the sidelines of a ‘Crime Free Christmas’ Symposium, he said: “We want to encourage businesses this holiday season to be very vigilant, and take every precaution to ensure that they protect themselves, their employees and their property.

“We did get some very startling insights on the level of cyber crimes and the level credit card fraud. We were quite alarmed by that, and so we would admonish the business community -especially those involved in the retail sector - to be very cognisant of credit card transactions. “While we encourage the use of credit cards to mitigate against the attraction of having cash on property, they must also be equally as vigilant with credit cards because the police have informed us that the level of credit card fraud has increased over the last three years.

“The level of cyber crimes have also been on the increase.”

Mr Sumner encouraged businesses and consumers to check their bank accounts and statements frequently to ensure there were no unrecognised or unauthorised transactions going through.