Financial Crimes Intelligence Center Prevents More Than $273 Million In Monetary Losses In Its First Three Years

FCIC Operational Results, Calendar Years 2022 – 2024

  2022 2023 2024 Total, 2022-2024
Total amount of loss prevented or recovered $48,493,324 $123,026,504 $102,331,871 $273,848,699
Credit cards, credit card numbers recovered 1,629 3,945 14,854 20,428
Skimmers recovered 396 228 344 968
Suspects identified 217 363 614 1,194
Intelligence products distributed to law enforcement 472 398 454 1,324
Intelligence products distributed to private industry 213 128 147 488

 AUSTIN – In the three years since it officially opened, the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center (FCIC) prevented $273,848,699 in monetary losses due to fraud in Texas and recovered 20,428 credit cards and credit card numbers, as well as 968 credit card skimmers from gas pumps, ATMs and point-of-sale terminals.

The center – the first of its kind in the United States – was created by House Bill 2106 in the 87th Texas Legislature and operates as a partnership between the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) and the Smith County District Attorney’s Office. The center’s total two-year budget is $2,650,000.

The FCIC, located in Tyler, includes a Digital Forensics Laboratory that features some of the most sophisticated lab equipment in the state and country. Experts at the laboratory can perform forensics on phones, computers, tablets and skimmers of all types.

“The Financial Crimes Intelligence Center has done so much to protect Texans from financial crimes and unfortunately there’s much more work for the investigators to do. We’re grateful to the Texas Legislature, the Lieutenant Governor and the Governor for the trust they have placed in the FCIC, TDLR and the Smith County District Attorney’s Office, and look forward to accomplishing even more.”

As the FCIC’s mission matures, the Center routinely encounters criminal groups and enterprises that were previously unknown in Texas and sometimes nationally. Adding to that the rapid evolution of criminal technology, the FCIC has found new ways to keep up with those changes. The FCIC Digital Forensics Laboratory has led the charge nationally in finding methods to counteract, defeat, and compromise this illicit technology.

 TDLR regulates motor fuel metering and quality and collects consumer complaints and merchant reports related to credit card skimmers. The Smith County DA aggressively investigates and prosecutes criminals engaging in organized financial crimes such as fraud related to gasoline pump skimmers.