Five Russian nationals rented three, three-bedroomed apartments in Wellawatte, at Rs. 25,000 a day per apartment. One of their requirements was that, other than the main door, all other entry and exit points be sealed off. They spent lavishly on their food and beverage.The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was soon alerted. Sleuths were deployed as [...]

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Five Russians nabbed in credit card scam

By Damith Wickremasekara
Slick detective work by CID prevents theft in tens of thousands, if not millions of rupees
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Five Russian nationals rented three, three-bedroomed apartments in Wellawatte, at Rs. 25,000 a day per apartment. One of their requirements was that, other than the main door, all other entry and exit points be sealed off.

The Russian main suspect: An ex policeman

Some of the money they had withdrawn from an ATM

A night vision camera

Some of the equipment used in the operation

The laser weapon in a briefcase

A list of EMI numbers of credit cards

They spent lavishly on their food and beverage.The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was soon alerted. Sleuths were deployed as workers in the apartment, and the five Russians came under 24 hour surveillance.

The detectives discovered that the Russians had fitted CCTV cameras.Usually, one of the Russians remained, while the other four went out. But last week, all five left for lunch. After spending Rs 18,000 for lunch at a popular café in Kollupitiya, they left the café and started walking in the direction of Wellawatte, trailed by the CID officials.

They hovered around Automated Teller Machines (ATM) for long periods. Later as they approached their apartment, one of them stopped at an ATM machine, while the others proceeded to their rooms.

The man who remained was observed hurriedly pulling out credit cards and using them on the machine. But none of them seemed to be working.

As he exited the booth, the CID apprehended him. He had 72 credit cards in his possession, issued to foreign nationals. As he was being taken away, another Russian appeared to be trying to escape. The would-be escapee was also arrested, He turned out to be a former Russian police officer, Cacohov Sansonov, the mastermind of a major racket to skim data from credit cards and use the data to withdraw cash.

“We raided the apartment and found more than Rs. 3 million in local and foreign currency, six laptops, machines used to hack ATMs, night vision cameras and more than 250 credit cards,” a CID officer said.
Detectives also found credit card numbers and PIN numbers of some 150 persons, written on a sheet of paper, indicating a large scale fraud.

“We also found a laser gun and a device used to administer small electric shocks to people, rendering them unconscious for a short while,” the CID officer said.

Investigations revealed that they had come to Sri Lanka for seven days to withdraw cash of foreign credit card holders. However, the CID does not rule out the possibility of their plans to gather information on local credit card users as well.

The gang of five now in custody, have been found to be operating in Thailand as well on a commission basis. Prior to their arrival in Sri Lanka, they had visited Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Germany.

“If they had not been detected when we did, they would have got away with large sums of money from the accounts,” the officer said.

He said however the whereabouts of another suspect reportedly linked to this gang was yet unknown. The five suspects are in remand custody pending further investigations.




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