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CID busts expat Lankans’ credit card scam using local contacts
Two Sri Lankans domiciled in Germany and France, led a gang in Vavuniya to secretly collect and transmit credit card data of Vavuniya residents, to duplicate those credit cards, Criminal Investigations Department (CID) investigations revealed.
The breakthrough came following a complaint to the CID last month by a private bank in Vavuniya, that some of its customers had claimed unauthorised withdrawals against their credit cards. An analysis of the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) camera footage revealed that at least two persons were involved in using duplicated credit cards.
A CID team investigating the case were able to arrest the two suspects at a fuel station in Vavuniya town, along with the fuel pump operator. The two persons who visited the bank had been arrested separately. “Our investigations revealed that it was the fuel pump operator who was skimming details of the credit cards by swiping the cards in a second machine held by him,” a CID officer told the Sunday Times.
“The racket involved skimming credit card data and transmitting it overseas to duplicate those credit cards, which are sent here and put into use,” he explained. Investigations revealed that the suspects had withdrawn Rs 255,000. However, some of the duplicate credit cards may have also been used overseas, he explained.
The CID has recovered 40 credit cards in the possession of the suspects, and are in the process of trying to ascertain whether they had been made use of locally. Investigations also revealed that the suspect living in Germany had been identified only as Ruban while the other, resident in France, as W. Nageshwaran. Both of them residents of Vavuniya, had originally left for the UK, and later fled to the other two countries.
The other suspects taken into custody are A. Nagarajan, R. Varmaraja, K. Thawarasa, W. Rameshwaram and S. Kulasingham.
The CID also took into custody two computers and a three-wheeler used by the suspects.
The suspects have been remanded pending investigations. The CID has sought Interpol assistance to arrest the two expat suspects.
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