Spanish Police Arrest 3 Behind Payment Card Fraud

Spanish police arrested three members of a banking card fraud ring that has stolen thousands of euros using various hacking techniques.

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The group mainly targeted ATMs of Spanish national banks using cloned payment cards. Spanish police estimated the group had fraudulently pocketed nearly 196,000 euros.

Authorities arrested the three members in the Spanish coastal city of Valencia on Sunday following an operation led by the Spanish police’s internet crime and financial fraud divisions.

Authorities said the trio, whose identities have been withheld, specialized in various aspects of the crime. Typically, the group began its operation by installing skimmers and micro-cameras on automatic tellers. The skimmer copied and stored data from the magnetic stripes of banking cards, while the micro-camera captured the PIN when users entered their access number.

The fraudsters used cloned banking cards and the compromised credentials to make illicit banking transfers. In addition to skimmers, authorities said, the group sent phishing emails and used false online profiles to harvest passwords and other information, such as users’ identity documents.

Authorities confiscated a magnetic stripe reader used by the crooks, a card-reader, 300 banking cards – including counterfeit ones, six skimmer devices and13 configuration plates for skimmer devices.

The three have been arrested on charges related to forgery of credit and debit cards, fraud, falsification of document and money laundering. Two suspects remained in police custody after their arrest. The authorities said the investigation will remain open to identify other potential members of the group who may be at large.