INTERNATIONAL ATM CARDS CLONING SYNDICATE BUSTED; TWO LANKANS ARRESTED

February 19, 2014 

Malaysian Police raided a condominium unit at the Axiss Soho, Taman Cempaka in Ampang at 8pm last night and detained two Sri Lankan nationals. They also seized 2270 fake international ATM cards.

Selangor Commercial Crimes chief ACP Chong Mun Phing said during the 8pm raid, police seized 2,217 ATM cards, 58 safety boxes, a printer, a card reader, two hand phones and a laptop computer.

Chong told reporters at the Selangor police headquarters, here, today that one of the two suspects detained was a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card holder since 2008 while the other had entered the country using a tourist visa that had expired last month.

Chong said the modus operandi of the two suspects, aged 28 and 38, and believed to be runners, was to use the cloned ATM cards, normally cards issued by foreign banks, to withdraw RM1,000 cash every transaction at local ATM machines.

The suspects placed the cloned cards in safety boxes that had a password and later went to ATM machines to withdraw money using passwords provided by the safety box, as per the card holders pin numbers.

“The seized cards do not look like real ATM cards but the police have referred the cards to the bank to check the magnetic strip which contained the data of 1,300 account holders, all from abroad,” he said.

Chong said initial investigations revealed that the suspects, believed to be active in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur for the past two months, received their passwords via email from abroad. (Bernama)