Police bust syndicate forging credit cards
GEORGE TOWN, July 2 — Police busted a syndicate which had been actively forging credit cards since last year following the arrest of three men aged 20 to 30 in a raid on a house in Pulau Tikus here on June 22.
Penang police acting chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Jaafar said the raid was conducted based on information from the public and police surveillance for six months.
“The syndicate’s modus operandi was to install a skimmer resembling the automated teller machine (ATM) card slot to get the debit and credit card data of bank customers.
“They also installed a modified camera using a mobile phone battery or a wireless camera close to the ATMs to record the pin number of credit cardholders,” he told a press conference at the Seberang Perai Selatan police headquarters in Nibong Tebal today.
Abdul Rahim said the suspects would clone the cards once they got the data to withdraw cash or to purchase items in Thailand and Taiwan.
So far, he said three banks had lodged police reports on the syndicate’s activities which had cost them about RM100,000.
“And more than 50 bank customers had filed complaints on their credit cards being used for items purchased in Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam,” he said.
Among the items seized during the raid were laptops, three magnetic stripe white cards, two grey and green card slots and a modified camera.
Abdul Rahim urged members of the public who detected suspicious credit card transactions or devices installed at the ATMs to report the matter to the nearest police station. — Bernama
