I am pleased that legislation I sponsored which is designed to protect
consumers from Automated Teller Machine (ATM) scams, has been signed
into law by the Governor.
The bill,
A.8442, would amend the
state’s banking law in relation to
security measures at ATMs by extending the amount of time
that banking institutions must retain ATM surveillance
recordings from 30 days to 45 days.
Prior to the signing of this new law, banking institutions
were only required to retain ATM surveillance recordings for
thirty days. Considering, however, the number of ATM scams
designed to steal consumer’s ATM cards and PIN numbers,
banking institutions should retain potentially valuable
video evidence for a longer time in order to improve
consumer’s financial safety.
Consumers generally receive their monthly bank statements
eight to ten days following the conclusion of a thirty-day
cycle. Consequently, in the case of ATM scams, a consumer
may recognize an error in their statement after the
thirty-day surveillance video retention period has expired,
making it difficult to ascertain when their account was
accessed illegally and by whom.
Extending this video retention period will help combat ATM
fraud by allowing consumers to account for errors in their
bank statements before video evidence of the fraudulent
activity is discarded.
As the new Chairwoman of the Assembly’s Banks Committee, I
have made enhancing consumer protection a priority. I am
happy that this more effective consumer safety measure has
become law.
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