Chip and PIN fraudsters jailed
Two men who purloined the details of thousands of credit cards from Chip and PIN terminals and used them to make counterfeits before stealing over £1 million have been jailed at a London Court.
Anup Patel and Anthony Thomas were found guilty of conspiring to steal and defraud at Croydon Crown Court yesterday. Patel - believed to be the mastermind behind the gang - was sentenced to six years in prison and Thomas to two years.
Police say the two men ran a fake credit card factory, using stolen data to manufacture counterfeit cards.
According to press reports, the card data was obtained by installing fake payments terminals with hidden data readers at petrol stations around the capital. The fake cards were used to make purchases and withdrawals from ATMs - worth over £1 million - in countries where Chip and PIN is not used, including Thailand.
In October 2006 City of London Police raided Patel's office unit and home address. They found equipment used to produce fake credit cards, including magnetic strip cards capable of being re-written with skimmed data, lists of data annotated with PIN numbers and payments terminals.
Source: http://www.finextra.com and http://www.timesonline.co.uk, October 29th, 2008.