Card cloning

Description:

It is believed that about 80 people have fallen victim to a sophisticated card-skimming syndicate that targeted ATMs in and around Amanzimtoti, south of Durban in one weekend alone which involve thousands of rand out of pocket for each victim, and there could be many more.

Six people were arrested for breakthrough that police hope may be linked to the South Coast card fraud.

Among the six is a government employee alleged to have the skills to link cloned cards to bank accounts.

In one instance, a man lost R15 000 over three days.

Money was withdrawn from the ATM at the Seadoone mall on a Friday and on Monday it was discovered that R15 000 had been withdrawn from a bank account.

On reporting the case to the police it was revealed that 35 other people had already done so and by late evening that number had increased to more than 60.

The bank said it was a sophisticated and well-planned attack, and that the scammers could determine the individual withdrawal limits of their victims.

The banks and the police suspected that card-reading devices had been placed on the ATMs. These read the information on cards inserted into the ATMs, including the PINs entered. The information is used to create duplicate cards, which are then used to withdraw cash.

Ther banks involved are Absa, FNB, Standard Bank and Capitec mainly occurred at the Galleria and Arbour Crossing shopping centres.

It is believed that many people might not yet know they had fallen prey to the syndicate.

People must be vigilant at ATMs and keep their personal information confidential and not to accept help from strangers at ATMs.

In the Friday bust, police investigated a report of “suspicious behaviour” at the Umlazi Mega City mall and arrested a man trying to scam an unsuspecting ATM user.

Two more people were arrested and were found in possession of several stolen bank cards and R2 000 in cash.

Further investigation led to the arrest of a woman from Pinetown alleged to be involved in several card fraud cases.

Police said the woman could design and create fake debit cards.

A major twist was the uncovering of her daughter, who worked in a government department and had the software skills to link cards fraudulently to banks who had special skills in creating false files for social grants, and would embezzle government funding.Whilest police were interrogating her, a sixth suspect walked into the house. On searching him, they found more bank cards and he was arrested.

Police said the six appeared in the commercial crimes court. The damage from their operation is thought to be in the millions.