Phuket police arrest three Bulgarian ATM skimmers

[Lite Beer]

Phuket police arrest three Bulgarian ATM skimmers


The Bulgarian skimmers at this morning's press conference

PHUKET: A joint operation by police Phuket Provincial Police and officers from Patong and Karon resulted in the arrests early this morning (September 27) of three ATM skimmer suspects after police received more than 100 complaints from people whose bank accounts had been plundered.

“Footage from cameras on ATM machines and from security cameras nearby was examined to get images of the suspects in every area from which we received complaints,” said Phuket Provincial Police investigator, Pol Lt Col Prawit Engchuan.

“About 1am we sent plainclothes police to keep an eye on a number of ATMs and saw the three suspects withdrawing money many times from the same machines.”

“Police then tracked them to the Narry Patong hotel in Soi Dr Wattana in Patong. When we searched their rooms we found 37 cloned cards, a machine for skimming, three computer notebooks and four mobile phones, which we seized,” Col Prawit said.

All three men are Bulgarian. Tsvetozar Georgiev, 44, was found to have withdrawn B10,000 on seven occasions from the Bangkok Bank ATM at Super Cheap minimart in Karon.

Valentin Guenadiev, 42, had withdrawn similar amounts from the Ayudhaya Bank ATM near the Baan Thai Resort in Patong, while Tsvetan Nestorov, 42, had taken money from an ATM at a 7-Eleven in the Kata-Karon area. He also confessed to having installed the skimmers used.

At a press conference this morning Pol Maj Gen Krajang Suwannarat, currently commanding Phuket Provincial Police, said, “We received cooperation from the banks, who provided money transfer information and camera footage of suspects, including the vehicles they used. This enabled us to make the arrests.

“They told the police that they flew into Thailand on August 23 and used the skimmed cash for spending money while they were here,” he explained.

Police did not entirely believe this. “They are now being questioned to discover more information about where they sent money, and about other members of their network,” Gen Krajang said.

The three were charged with electronic card fraud, which they accepted.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-police-arrest-three-bulgarian-atm-skimmers-48914.php

-- Phuket News 2014-09-27

[lee b]

hope this ends out like the 3 who were caught last week ! They have to put there foot down with this

[balo]

Whats wrong with Thai ATM ? All the scammers love them , I think the banks can afford to upgrade ATMs to follow western standards.

.

[Lite Beer]

Bulgarians arrested in Phuket for ATM skimming
The Sunday Nation


Three Bulgarian men arrested for allegedly skimming ATM cards appear at a police press conference in Phuket about their arrest yesterday.

PHUKET: -- Three Bulgarian men were arrested in Phuket yesterday for skimming ATM cards and making withdrawals from hacked accounts totalling more than Bt170,000.

Thirty-seven magnetic cards were found in their possession.

They were charged with colluding to falsify electronic cards and possession of the cards with the intent of illegal use.

Tsvetozar Georgiev Slavchev, 44, was arrested while withdrawing money from an ATM in front of a Super Cheap convenience store at Karon Beach at 1am.

"We have CCTV recordings of Slavchev making seven withdrawals from that ATM totalling Bt70,000," said Phuket Provincial Police Deputy Superintendent Prawit Engchuan.

Valentin Guenadiev Nikolov, 42, was placed under arrest at an ATM in front of a Family Mart convenience store on the Patong beach road.

"Nikolov had withdrawn about Bt100,000 from a tourist's account," Lt-Colonel Prawit said.

Officers had staked out the ATM after the tourist had shown police an automated message sent to his mobile phone by his bank, noting that a withdrawal had been made - a withdrawal that the tourist said he knew nothing about, Prawit explained.

Meanwhile, Tsvetan Nestorov Yanev, 42, was arrested at an ATM in front of a 7-Eleven store in Kata-Karon.

During questioning, Yanev confessed that he had fitted skimming devices to ATMs in Phuket to steal ATM card data so it could be used later to make withdrawals, Prawit said.

"Officers seized 100 magnetic electronic cards and other electronic devices used to make the withdrawals," he added.

The arrests came after more than 100 people, including tourists, reported to police that they were victims of ATM skimming, Prawit said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Bulgarians-arrested-in-Phuket-for-ATM-skimming-30244297.html

-- The Nation 2014-09-28

[shirtless]

This is way to common, Banks need to address this issue but we all know they are only concerned for their bottom line,

[keestha]

“About 1am we sent plainclothes police to keep an eye on a number of ATMs and saw the three suspects withdrawing money many times from the same machines.”

Keeps amazing me how stupidly these people operate. Oh well, they're not referred to as mules without a reason.

[grumpyoldman]

Was told a lot of this going on in the Rawai area also. Thai fellow I know said the bank called him regarding his card being skimmed and cloned from the ATM at the SuperCheap minimart Sai Yuan.

[Searat7]

Seems that Immigration needs to become more involved to determine how so many unsavory foreign criminals are being allowed into the country. If they looked at the passports of those involved in this activity and how long they stay here they might find a common thread....in this case the criminals had been here over 30 days so may have been on overstay. It seems that we are reading about skimmers every week in TV.

[ScotBkk]

Seems that Immigration needs to become more involved to determine how so many unsavory foreign criminals are being allowed into the country. If they looked at the passports of those involved in this activity and how long they stay here they might find a common thread....in this case the criminals had been here over 30 days so may have been on overstay. It seems that we are reading about skimmers every week in TV.

Well, your definitely on the right track..... except overstayers are catagorised as the worst sort of despicable people people to set foot in Thailand ... or so it seems to some tv members ...............

[Strangebrew]

simple move ATM inside to well lighted stores.

[ClutchClark]

More great police work!

Hope they send these dirtbags to Thai prison.

[GertrudeL]

Only 170k... hahaha Any foreigner spends 60-90k per month, they spent just 60k each... Sure, do not catch real scammers, who used to steal millions hahaha What a show...

[ClutchClark]

Only 170k... hahaha Any foreigner spends 60-90k per month, they spent just 60k each... Sure, do not catch real scammers, who used to steal millions hahaha What a show...

Ahh...these were "real" scammers.

The police did their job.

[johnnycthedog]

Only 170k... hahaha Any foreigner spends 60-90k per month, they spent just 60k each... Sure, do not catch real scammers, who used to steal millions hahaha What a show...

Oh so cynical! Read the news article more closely.

Police were alerted when a tourist received an sms from their bank reporting that a withdrawal had occurred on their account which the tourist recognised as an unauthorised transaction.

A tourist had already lost 100,000 baht from their account. Another 70,000 had been withdrawn on other accounts - probably the ones done under police observation..

Police found 37 copied credit cards in the criminals possession.

I would suggest that these criminals were caught in the very early stages of their ATM fraud activity. Even with 37 falsified cards at say 100,000 baht each - well you do the sums. The criminals would have manufactured many, many more falsified cards as time permitted.

If not for the early intervention of the police due to the sms card activity report sent to the tourist's phone these criminals would have fleeced millions of baht.

These ATM card scammers are the lowest of the low. Most tourists using "western" bank accounts will eventually get their money refunded after investigation by the bank. But causing a huge inconvenience when you're on holiday for a number of reasons. However the expats and Thais who have local bank accounts normally do their money cold as Thai banks virtually say "stiff shit not our problem".

[jossthaifarang]

FYI, not sure if this works but its worthg a crack..

PAUSE FOR EFFECT

Mr Chumpon revealed a new technique to help prevent ATM cards from being skimmed: when removing the card from the ATM, do not remove it in one swift move.“Skimming devices need a ‘clean swipe’ to obtain the data from the magnetic strip,” he said.

So you when you remove your card from the ATM, pause halfway through, then remove the card. You could even reinsert it part-way. Anything that breaks the rhythm of a clean swipe. This should help prevent the card from being skimmed when you remove it from the machine.

This article first appeared in the August 2-8 issue of the hard-copy Phuket Gazette newspaper. - See more at:

http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Skimming-new-frontier-ATM-fraud/32464

[GertrudeL]

FYI, not sure if this works but its worthg a crack..

PAUSE FOR EFFECT

Mr Chumpon revealed a new technique to help prevent ATM cards from being skimmed: when removing the card from the ATM, do not remove it in one swift move.“Skimming devices need a ‘clean swipe’ to obtain the data from the magnetic strip,” he said.

So you when you remove your card from the ATM, pause halfway through, then remove the card. You could even reinsert it part-way. Anything that breaks the rhythm of a clean swipe. This should help prevent the card from being skimmed when you remove it from the machine.

This article first appeared in the August 2-8 issue of the hard-copy Phuket Gazette newspaper. - See more at:

http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Skimming-new-frontier-ATM-fraud/32464

Is that so simple? Are you sure that readers cannot merge data from different 'sections' of the card? Just similar example with bar code readers, they can read code from any angle as they use some algorithm to recover partially or broken bar code... may be there is similar algorithm 'to fix' badly read card?

[The Deerhunter]

OK. So how many of the Bulgarian tourists currently in Thailand would be here honestly, i.e. NOT to do monkey business with ATM fraud etc?

[jossthaifarang]

FYI, not sure if this works but its worthg a crack..

PAUSE FOR EFFECT

Mr Chumpon revealed a new technique to help prevent ATM cards from being skimmed: when removing the card from the ATM, do not remove it in one swift move.“Skimming devices need a ‘clean swipe’ to obtain the data from the magnetic strip,” he said.

So you when you remove your card from the ATM, pause halfway through, then remove the card. You could even reinsert it part-way. Anything that breaks the rhythm of a clean swipe. This should help prevent the card from being skimmed when you remove it from the machine.

This article first appeared in the August 2-8 issue of the hard-copy Phuket Gazette newspaper. - See more at:

http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Skimming-new-frontier-ATM-fraud/32464

Is that so simple? Are you sure that readers cannot merge data from different 'sections' of the card? Just similar example with bar code readers, they can read code from any angle as they use some algorithm to recover partially or broken bar code... may be there is similar algorithm 'to fix' badly read card?

Again, as i said, "Not sure if this works but its worthg a crack"..

I'm no expert just quoting what i read mate, anything is better than nothing..