Crime
Foreigners Arrested for using Fake Credit Cards at Thai ATMs
Chiangrai Times – Three Turkish Men have been arrested for using counterfeit credit cards at ATMs in Bangkok, causing damages of over Bt100 million, according to the Immigration Bureau.
Immigration Bureau Commissioner Pol Lt Gen Wiboon Bangthamai, said at a press conference that the trio, identified as Mr Sayman Ozgur Kazim, Mr Vidin Erdinc and Mr Yilmaz Sdrkan, were arrested with 58 electronic cards, Bt527, 000 in cash, 333 white plastic cards with magnetic stripes for making fake credit cards, skimmer devices and computers.
Gen Wiboon said that authorities have received information that a group of foreigners has faked credit cards and were randomly withdrawn cash from ATMs. According to the investigation, authorities traced the group and found that they had rented a house in the Sathorn area.
The authorities asked the court to issue a search warrant to raid the house and arrest them, he said.
Gen Wiboon said that most of the victims were French nationals. The gang would travel after midnight to ATMs and had been committing these crimes for more than one year, causing damages of more than Bt100 million.
The trio were charged with manufacturing and using counterfeit credit cards and illegally using other persons’ data for credit cards.
Their visas were revoked and they were also placed on the persona non grata list.
Lithuanian nationals were arrested for using fake credit cards to withdraw money from ATMs in Pattaya, Chon Buri, and Sattahip.Meanwhile, Provincial Police Region 2 commissioner Pol Maj Gen Panya Mamen said at press conference that two Lithuanian nationals were arrested for using fake credit cards to withdraw money from ATMs in Pattaya, Chon Buri, and Sattahip.
The duos were identified as Mr Marius Giedriunas, 22, and Mr. Dangis Valkauskas, 20. Police also found 30 credit cards; two black baseball caps and a plastic mask; and US currency totaling US$460.
The police had received complaints from Siam Commercial Bank that there were foreigners wearing masks like in the movies, withdrawing money from ATMs by using fake credit cards.
The police could arrest them while they were leaving Pattaya on a bus heading to Suvaranabhumi airport to return to their country.
Both of them told police that they bought the fake credit cards from an agent in England via internet website. Most of the information in the credit cards belonged mostly to victims in France.
After they received the credit cards, they traveled to Thailand and withdrew cash from ATMs in Sattahip some145 times while also withdrawing cash from ATMs in Pattaya and Chon Buri hundred times, taking in money around Bt300, 000.
They used masks and caps to conceal their identity. Most of the money was transferred to their accomplices in Lithuania and they would receive a 40 percent cut of the money.
