01Sep “The deposit box is out of order”
The Oregon Newspaper “The Oregonian” reported the following on August 19, 2008:
Two men made off with hundreds of dollars in cash by dressing as security guards, standing outside a bank’s night deposit slot and persuading people to hand over their money because the slot was broken.
The men offered to make the deposits for customers at the Washington Square branch of Wells Fargo Bank the next day when the bank reopened, said Jim Wolf, a Tigard Police Department spokesman.
“Wells Fargo had absolutely no idea who these men were,” Wolf said.
He said the men wore uniforms and had badges and guns. The night deposit slot was covered by a blue engraved sign saying it was out of order.
The men offered to collect the deposits by putting them in a black box they had, Wolf said. The deposits came from businesses that normally use the slot to deposit the day’s receipts from their tills.
Two people who gave deposits to the men said the sign over the slot read “Out of Service.”
These men had many factors in their favor. Generally, people trust those that appear to have authority. Also, many people consider it “rude” to question someone who’s “just doing their job”, and many people have very low standards for correlation; in this case, the sign said the deposit box was out of order, and there was a guard nearby- “it must be true!”
The same threats exist against your organization. A “Social Engineer” will rely on those same assumptions, and several more, when attempting to infiltrate or obtain information to which they wouldn’t normally have access. Remember that enforcing security isn’t “rude”, and following proper procedures isn’t being “paranoid”!
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