Dubai: Four people from Eastern Europe were arrested for stealing millions of dirhams from various bank accounts using fake debit cards.
Colonel Abdullah Rashid, Director of the Anti-Economic Crime Department at the CID, said that they had received nine reports from different bank customers, saying they had received SMS messages from their bank informing them that they had withdrew money from their accounts.
When those people checked with their banks, the banks confirmed the transactions had taken place.
He said a team from the Anti-Economic Crime Department was immediately formed and through investigations they found out that most of the people who reported being robbed, had recently used their debit card abroad to withdraw money.
Col Rashid said that by keeping a watch on a number of ATMs, they found that there was an Eastern European man who frequented ATMs in uncrowded areas in Dubai.
When they ambushed the man while he was withdrawing money from one of the machines, they found a number of fake bank cards on him.
The man confessed to receiving these cards from people in his country.
Police also found out he was in contact with another three who were also in the UAE and who were arrested.
Col Rashid explained that these people have partners working with them in their home country who supply them with the fake cards. He said they are working with Interpol to arrest the remaining members of the gang.
He said that it seemed that the victims used their cards in machines that had hidden cameras and devices to scan the card numbers. The suspects then used this data to create the fake cards.
Col Rashid urged the public to change their pin codes from time to time, to reduce the risk of falling prey to such gangs. People should also cover the ATM machine’s keypad with their other hand when entering their pin number, which makes it difficult for anyone or a camera to pick up the number. He added that all banks should use cards that have a gold coloured chip embedded in them as it is hard for counterfeiters to copy these. He pointed out that most banks in the country are already using such cards.
Banks should also use ATM machines that automatically shut down or send an alert when unauthoried people try to install a camera or a machine to scan card numbers.
