Romanian Bank Card Fraudsters arrested in Pattaya

[bartender100]

I saw these guys about a month ago, I was sitting outside the Flying Dolphins in Jomtien, when I saw one guy go to the ATM while one sat on the step near me, they both were wearing baseball caps.

I don't know why but something struck me odd, so I followed them, they went to every ATM along the road towards Pattaya, I tried to report it, but had a job to make myself understood, they wanted me to go to the station, by that time they had jumped on motorcycle taxi's towards Pattaya

True story

[DD13]

Dose any one knows what ever happened to all of those guys that are getting caught

with those crimes? are they ever prosecuted? if so, what punishment is matted to them?

Just wondering.. you get to here how these guys getting arrested on a daily bases, but

never know what ever become of them?

You never hear about these people again because the Thai courts are extremely slow in dealing with all cases. If they plead not guilty they will be in jail for years before receiving a "trial" and then will be found guilty, and a guilty plea may take over 3 months to get finally sentenced. I think they will receive about one year for each card, a maximum of 20 years for a quick guilty plea, no parole but the chance for the occasional King or Queen's amnesties. Fraudsters get very heavy punishments in Thailand, no death sentences but many many years instead. Therefore these two guys are going to be long time residents of this sunny land.

"Clink"....The Best Place for them.......

and the UK have got the WELCOME mat out for their countrymen

[MMarlow]

VLACH GIPSIES ARE HERE

how much smart are they?

32 K THB

Smarter than you, if you read the report they probably got millions.

[Asiantravel]

Dose any one knows what ever happened to all of those guys that are getting caught

with those crimes? are they ever prosecuted? if so, what punishment is matted to them?

Just wondering.. you get to here how these guys getting arrested on a daily bases, but

never know what ever become of them?

You never hear about these people again because the Thai courts are extremely slow in dealing with all cases. If they plead not guilty they will be in jail for years before receiving a "trial" and then will be found guilty, and a guilty plea may take over 3 months to get finally sentenced. I think they will receive about one year for each card, a maximum of 20 years for a quick guilty plea, no parole but the chance for the occasional King or Queen's amnesties. Fraudsters get very heavy punishments in Thailand, no death sentences but many many years instead. Therefore these two guys are going to be long time residents of this sunny land.

WOW ! I had no idea about this. Perhaps if they published these facts in the media a bit more and showed an example of what happens to them as they go through the system, it might act at least as a bit of a deterrent to others ‘ would be’ fraudsters.

Anyway, I agree with the previous poster and have stopped using ATMs in Thailand now and always go inside the bank for counter service.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The overall banking system here has improved dramatically but some components/basic features are still in the techno stone age. I'm not sure about other banks here but with Kasikorn my ATM does not have my name on it and no pin is needed when purchasing over the counter (stores, restaurants, etc.); screwed if you lose your card and this allows employees to pick off the number and use it at will.

There are generally two kinds of transactions available with debit cards: PIN based transactions and "swipe and sign" transactions.

The PIN transactions are those like ATM withdrawals, where the card owner has to enter his personal code on a keypad. Unfortunately, PIN based Point of Sale (POS) transactions (retail purchases) are basically unknown here at the retail level, although they're common elsewhere in the world.

Instead, here in Thailand, almost all Point of Sale transactions are handled via "swipe and sign" where no PIN or other verification is usually required. Thus, someone who steals your card can use it in stores to ring up sales up to your card's daily POS purchase limit.

The only safeguard against that is to go into the settings for your Thai bank card, and set the POS sales limit to ZERO. That effectively prevents swipe and sign purchases with the card, but still would allow normal ATM withdrawals using your personal PIN code.

[nahkit]

The overall banking system here has improved dramatically but some components/basic features are still in the techno stone age. I'm not sure about other banks here but with Kasikorn my ATM does not have my name on it and no pin is needed when purchasing over the counter (stores, restaurants, etc.); screwed if you lose your card and this allows employees to pick off the number and use it at will.

There are generally two kinds of transactions available with debit cards: PIN based transactions and "swipe and sign" transactions.

The PIN transactions are those like ATM withdrawals, where the card owner has to enter his personal code on a keypad. Unfortunately, PIN based Point of Sale (POS) transactions (retail purchases) are basically unknown here at the retail level, although they're common elsewhere in the world.

Instead, here in Thailand, almost all Point of Sale transactions are handled via "swipe and sign" where no PIN or other verification is usually required. Thus, someone who steals your card can use it in stores to ring up sales up to your card's daily POS purchase limit.

The only safeguard against that is to go into the settings for your Thai bank card, and set the POS sales limit to ZERO. That effectively prevents swipe and sign purchases with the card, but still would allow normal ATM withdrawals using your personal PIN code.

That's interesting stuff. How does the retailer determine whether the transaction should be PIN based or 'swipe and sign'? Is this something that is determined by the card provider? The reason I ask is that when I was shopping in Robinson over Christmas, for each purchase I made I was asked to go over to the counter and enter my pin but all around me were sales assistants handing over customer cards for swipe and sign transactions, no pin necessary.

As far as I could tell, I was the only customer being asked to enter a pin.

They also asked me to sign in addition to entering my pin, even though the sales slip came out with a message saying no signature was required.

Just curious.

[chrisinth]

Casual un monitored phone call while in custody and facing serious charges.

Yep, noticed that as well. Still, it might be his bank telling him his credit card has just been used in Manilla................

[Nemesis7]

Romanian with Moldovian passport?!?!?

[Ulic]

Dose any one knows what ever happened to all of those guys that are getting caught

with those crimes? are they ever prosecuted? if so, what punishment is matted to them?

Just wondering.. you get to here how these guys getting arrested on a daily bases, but

never know what ever become of them?

You never hear about these people again because the Thai courts are extremely slow in dealing with all cases. If they plead not guilty they will be in jail for years before receiving a "trial" and then will be found guilty, and a guilty plea may take over 3 months to get finally sentenced. I think they will receive about one year for each card, a maximum of 20 years for a quick guilty plea, no parole but the chance for the occasional King or Queen's amnesties. Fraudsters get very heavy punishments in Thailand, no death sentences but many many years instead. Therefore these two guys are going to be long time residents of this sunny land.

Nice to hear,I can live with that.

[sniffdog]

Certainly seems to be a lot of these characters in Thailand. All this and only 32K hardly seems worth it

Probably the rest was already sent home or to the management of this gang.

[Thunder26]

Romanian with Moldovian passport?!?!?

It is the other way around. A Moldovan with a Romanian passport. Most of Moldovan people have the right in getting a Romanian passport because Moldova was a part of Romania before the second world war and during that time people from Moldova had Romanian citizenship. When the Soviets came they took this right without asking the local people. ...It's a long story.

[Hawk]

Certainly seems to be a lot of these characters in Thailand. All this and only 32K hardly seems worth it

Probably the rest was already sent home or to the management of this gang.

32K is just the tip of the iceberg, Romanian card gangs never keep the money around, as it quickly gets sent back to Romania. So these guys have probably made a great deal of money already, and as you see only 32K has been recovered the rest has gone forever.

Here their punishment will be severe but in the UK they would only get 2 or 3 years in jail tops, as they would be out very quickly and sent back to Romania, free flights paid for by the UK government. Then in less than 6 weeks they would be back in the UK with new passports of course.

[Rimmer]

One post removed

In using Thai Visa I agree:

3) Not to post in a manner that is vulgar, obscene or profane.

[barmatt]

From my understanding the latest technology in scanners is reading your card even in your wallet! anyone know of this...I keep mine in a tinfoil sleeve...back in Canada, I have an "Enhanced Drivers License" allows customs in America to get all my information about me from the drivers license that has a CHIP imbedded similar to a credit card ..... when entering the states I hold my license outside the drivers window and proceed slowly and finally stopping at officers window where all my information is on his SCREEN...wow so do criminals have this technology it is a matter of time before this happens here.

They probably invented it

[mickyboy]

roma says it all you just started out there with these people the russian take over for sure not nice to be in the bar trade there paying money to thugs

[phantomfiddler]

Certainly seems to be a lot of these characters in Thailand. All this and only 32K hardly seems worth it

Are you kidding ? That was what they had on them at the time. The last 2 that I remember being caught said they had stolen over 100 million baht during the previous year !! These ar*****es don,t even have the guts to walk in and do a bank hold-up, and should be given treatment according to the chinese system !

[Rimmer]

Flame removed

[tomyumchai]

Must be just having a short holiday on their way to the UK.

it was probably funded by the Uk as a 'start up' business grant for the impoverished immigrant benefit claimers.

[TheNativeSon]

VLACH GIPSIES ARE HERE

how much smart are they?

32 K THB

for your knowledge...romanians and gypsies are two different ethnic groups, who share same citizenship.

gypsy or not, these 2 chaps deserve jailtime.

but please stop bashing romanians.

Nationality has got absolutely NOTHING to do with it. A thief is just a thief. Period. Why is everyone soooo "sensitive" about their insignificant "non-existent" nationalities. The world is now one big CORPORATE New World Order, (new info for all those ignoramous people, who are still "sleep-walking" thru global life, in 2014.

[TheNativeSon]

Jail time will not stop it. Chopping-off the hand of the thief, cremate the hand, then deport the ashes together w/ the thief (for life) to their home country, will definitely send a CLEAR message to that genre of blokes. Period! Anyone care to refute that remedy? Huh?

VLACH GIPSIES ARE HERE

how much smart are they?

32 K THB

for your knowledge...romanians and gypsies are two different ethnic groups, who share same citizenship.

gypsy or not, these 2 chaps deserve jailtime.

but please stop bashing romanians.

Nationality has got absolutely NOTHING to do with it. A thief is just a thief. Period. Why is everyone soooo "sensitive" about their insignificant "non-existent" nationalities. The world is now one big CORPORATE New World Order, (new info for all those ignoramous people, who are still "sleep-walking" thru global life, in 2014.

[thrilled]

With that many cards,these countries need to get away from these magnetic strip type ATM- credit cards.The chip type cards might be more expensive but people need to start requesting these type cards.

[davetrout]

I wish they would show what a skimming device looks like. It might help if the public could recognize a compromised ATM machine.

Oh and I hope these two are used as ladyboys by the other inmates.

here is a collection of them, as you can see they come in various forms.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=skimming+devices&qpvt=skimming+devices&FORM=IGRE

that is amazing how many different types

[OMGImInPattaya]

From my understanding the latest technology in scanners is reading your card even in your wallet! anyone know of this...I keep mine in a tinfoil sleeve...back in Canada, I have an "Enhanced Drivers License" allows customs in America to get all my information about me from the drivers license that has a CHIP imbedded similar to a credit card ..... when entering the states I hold my license outside the drivers window and proceed slowly and finally stopping at officers window where all my information is on his SCREEN...wow so do criminals have this technology it is a matter of time before this happens here.

Matches your tinfoil hat no doubt.

[sawadee1947]

..is there any competition???? Not only Russians but now all other mafiosi from eastern Europe? Romanians, Bulgarians? I forgot some?

[OMGImInPattaya]

Sometimes it helps to be old fashioned.

I don't have an ATM card and don't intend to ever have one.

Yermanee

I'm just the opposite...must have got on when the first came out like 30 years ago. I've never lost a cent and must of had dozens of them from USA and Thai banks since. Tell me, is it modern technology in general that worries you or only ATM bank cards? Like to you drive or ride in cars or do you walk or stick to horse and buggy? I mean tens of thousands of people are killed in auto accidents annually but they are still a very useful technology.

[OMGImInPattaya]

Check with your bank and be sure you have set a limit on "total daily" withdrawals. Otherwise these a*holes can keep skimming, and skimming and skimming until empty. Keep one account with no ATM for the "big baht bucks" and move cash over at the bank counter to your account with the ATM/debit card.

Also I get an immediate SMS every time my ATM debit card is used - cheap insurance (some banks may charge about 20 baht a month) and well worth it.

The overall banking system here has improved dramatically but some components/basic features are still in the techno stone age. I'm not sure about other banks here but with Kasikorn my ATM does not have my name on it and no pin is needed when purchasing over the counter (stores, restaurants, etc.); screwed if you lose your card and this allows employees to pick off the number and use it at will.

Not screwed if loose your card...a simple phone call to the bank cancels it and then just go to the bank and be reissued a new one.

[Ghostnigel]

Certainly seems to be a lot of these characters in Thailand. All this and only 32K hardly seems worth it

32K is like 20 years wages for Roma's, so its a good haul to them....555

[mushroomdave]

Dose any one knows what ever happened to all of those guys that are getting caught

with those crimes? are they ever prosecuted? if so, what punishment is matted to them?

Just wondering.. you get to here how these guys getting arrested on a daily bases, but

never know what ever become of them?

You never hear about these people again because the Thai courts are extremely slow in dealing with all cases. If they plead not guilty they will be in jail for years before receiving a "trial" and then will be found guilty, and a guilty plea may take over 3 months to get finally sentenced. I think they will receive about one year for each card, a maximum of 20 years for a quick guilty plea, no parole but the chance for the occasional King or Queen's amnesties. Fraudsters get very heavy punishments in Thailand, no death sentences but many many years instead. Therefore these two guys are going to be long time residents of this sunny land.

Yes I understand what you are saying and know they will get a lot of time for sure, but I was thinking the very same thing as Ezzra was asking. It would still be nice to see what people end up with as sentences and think it "may" be a bit of a deterrent to other Farangs here (or thinking of coming) before trying something. I am sure if "reporters" are getting all these arrest stories daily, I am sure they can get court verdicts each day also??......it doesn't seem all that hard does it??

[mushroomdave]

Certainly seems to be a lot of these characters in Thailand. All this and only 32K hardly seems worth it

Probably the rest was already sent home or to the management of this gang.

Yes, as the linked story says, millions transferred home before being caught.