Russian skimmer arrested after stealing nearly B100K in Kamala

[Lite Beer]

Russian skimmer arrested after stealing nearly B100K in Kamala
Nattha Thepbamrung

PHUKET: -- A 27-year-old Russian man was arrested Thursday (October 9) after using his electronic skimming card to make illegal cash withdrawals totalling near B100,000 from three branches of Kasikorn Bank in the Kamala area.

Kasikorn Bank reported to new Police Chief, Pol Maj Gen Pachara Boonyasit that there was a suspected foreigner withdrawing money from many different ATM machines of the bank from September 29 – 30 and again on October 5.

After checking the CCTV in every branch, the police team went to arrest Nicolai Petrishin, 27, at the Novotel Hotel in Kamala. The arrest was made just one day before Petrishin's tourist visa expired. The skimmer had just arrived to Thailand for the first time on September 28 with a reported 50 skimming cards from a Russian gang back in his native Moscow.

Mr Nicolai confessed that he got all the cards from his country and targeted Thailand since he could get a visa upon arrival.

After withdrawing about B100,000 from several ATM machines, he had to separate money into three parts: one for him, while the other two parts were sent back to Russia to the gang who initially gave him the cards along with 46 sets of pin codes.

Pol Maj Gen Pachara added about CCTV installation measure around the island that the team is gathering information about places and doing further survey for more installation.

"The cases we can close are almost all because of CCTV cameras. We are checking for more places that need cameras to be installed, which will be linked with Google Earth for more efficiency. Police in each area have to assign some representatives to take care of the CCTV camera in their respective area and immediately repair if it shows any error," Pol Maj Gen Pachara said.

The is the second time in three weeks that a skimmer had been arrested thanks to help from CCTV footage as electronic skimming has become an increasingly common crime in Phuket.

A group of Bulgarians were arrested on September 27 in Patong for skimming tens of thousands of Thai Baht from several ATM machines in the area.

In May, police arrested a group of foreigners who stole over B700,000 in a five-person skimming operation.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/russian-skimmer-arrested-after-stealing-nearly-b100k-in-kamala-49090.php


-- Phuket News 2014-10-11

[ttthailand]

Cut off their right hand.... Send a message !

[bartender100]

Are the white shirts Russian TP?, if so I hope he was working alone

[NamKangMan]

From his physical appearance, he looks like a drug user/addict.

[phantomfiddler]

Cut off their right hand.... Send a message !

Are you kidding ! Cut off both, that would really send a message

[transam]

Piece of shit.............. ..................Go back where you come form and do it there...........

[LivinginKata]

Post removed - English only on this forum.

[Mudcrab]

Fascinating how the CCTV's can be so reliable in one area and yet do not work elsewhere.

[NomadJoe]

Are the white shirts Russian TP?, if so I hope he was working alone

Why?

They are Russian volunteers for the Thai tourist police.

[ezzra]

Piece of shit.............. ..................Go back where you come form and do it there...........

And what? risk a Russian prison sentence? no thanks, I'll take my chances in a country

who's policy to punish people like me is the, ambiguous and very lenient, after all many of

my ilk keep coming here day after day, milking Thai ATM and getting away with that,

if I get caught so what couple of years in jail and out, unlike Russian jails tavarish...

[hEaDy]

Cut off their right hand.... Send a message !

You are a major part of the reason for ongoing conflicts in this world. Go and live in Saudi please!

[loongdavid]

This being almost a daily occurrence I have yet to hear any news concerning what sentence the courts hand down. I am of course assuming the culprits are charged and eventually face court.

[mok199]

skimmer scammer with that stupid look on his face...get into your cage chimper

[Searat7]

There must be something about the level of technology in Thai ATM's that allows this to happen. It is a frequent occurrence here and always foreign criminals (usually from same countries). Hope the banks will be able to find a way to stop this because otherwise the criminals will just keep coming here to do this

[NamKangMan]

Fascinating how the CCTV's can be so reliable in one area and yet do not work elsewhere.

I understand the humour in your post.

I will just mention that ATM's have a camera on them / in them, that is very reliable.

Maybe he used a disguise, or used a helmet, but the ATM camera would have filmed him, for sure.

[transam]

Piece of shit.............. ..................Go back where you come form and do it there...........

And what? risk a Russian prison sentence? no thanks, I'll take my chances in a country

who's policy to punish people like me is the, ambiguous and very lenient, after all many of

my ilk keep coming here day after day, milking Thai ATM and getting away with that,

if I get caught so what couple of years in jail and out, unlike Russian jails tavarish...

Hmmm, no money, like fish heads, weeeell, OK

[NamKangMan]

There must be something about the level of technology in Thai ATM's that allows this to happen. It is a frequent occurrence here and always foreign criminals (usually from same countries). Hope the banks will be able to find a way to stop this because otherwise the criminals will just keep coming here to do this

Thai ATM's are of a global standard, although I did notice some ATM's in Cambodia now have fingerprint recognition.

Russian people, in Russia, with Russian bank accounts, were skimmed. He then flew here with cloned cards and PIN numbers.

No fault of the Thai banks and/or their ATM's.

[SupermarineS6B]

Hang the scaly sod up ! Or send him to Koh Tao and let out that he's a undecover cop............. same result .....

[Pundi6446]

Frigging douche bag, and for all the other out there, still at large, you are all pieces of rat shit, yes you, you know who you are, that's right you

[NomadJoe]

There must be something about the level of technology in Thai ATM's that allows this to happen. It is a frequent occurrence here and always foreign criminals (usually from same countries). Hope the banks will be able to find a way to stop this because otherwise the criminals will just keep coming here to do this

All the systems in the world which use magnetic stripe and pin code are equally susceptible. It's the lax laws, inefficient police, and ease of buying ones freedom if caught that brings these guys here.There is the added allure of victimizing tourists who maybe back home before realizing they got skimmed.

Many banks of the world have switched to an embedded chip which is virtually impossible to skim. The only bank in Thailand that uses this chip is Bangkok Bank. I have this chip in my Bangkok Bank card and it sucks because I can only use Bangkok Bank ATM's because they are the only ones with ATM's that can read them. I have at times had a very difficult time finding a Bangkok Bank ATM. They do not seem to be nearly as common as some of the others.

I see this as yet another humanity tax. Like speed bumps I must suffer because other people can't drive at a reasonable speed, or the fact that I have to pay 14,000B a year in motorcycle insurance because idiots drive like idiots and I have to pay for their bikes to get fixed or their victims to be hospitalized.

[NomadJoe]

This being almost a daily occurrence I have yet to hear any news concerning what sentence the courts hand down. I am of course assuming the culprits are charged and eventually face court.

English media in Phuket is notoriously bad about this. We don't often hear about the sentencing, but Phuket prison and others are full of foreign criminals so we know at least some of them land there.

I met a Brit years ago that claimed he paid the warden of the Chang Mai prison 50,000USD to be released after a year. He said he was convicted of murder. Probably a BS story.

[NomadJoe]

"Pol Maj Gen Pachara added about CCTV installation measure around the island that the team is gathering information about places and doing further survey for more installation."

Makes sense after about the third read.

God how I miss the Phuket Gazette.

Police foil Russian ATM skimmer’s Phuket escape plan

PHUKET: Police nabbed a Russian ATM skimmer for stealing more than 100,000 baht from foreigners’ bank accounts just before he was set to leave the island yesterday morning. Nicolai Petrishin, 27, was arrested at Novotel Resort in Kamala in possession of equipment used for the scam. “We received three complaints from Kasikorn Bank between September 29 and October 5 stating that funds from accounts of K-Bank clients were being withdrawn inappropriately in the Kamala area,” Phuket Provincial Police Commander Patchara Boonyasit told the Phuket Gazette yesterday.

See more at: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Police-foil-Russian-ATM-skimmers-Phuket-escape/37153#ad-image-0

[balo]

RTP can actually solve crimes , and they do it very efficient imo . We see proof of this weekly, even if corruption is a big part of Thailand .

[ttthailand]

Cut off their right hand.... Send a message !

You are a major part of the reason for ongoing conflicts in this world. Go and live in Saudi please!

hEaDy...If you have never been scammed then you should not talk...

I had one of my cards copied and lost a ton of money to these lowlifes .... It took a lot of paperwork and a few phone calls to get everything back to normal. This was a major inconvenience for me and everyone else they scam.... I have nothing but contempt for scum like this .... Cut off both his hands like someone else suggested.

Total scum lowlifes !!!

Edited October 11, 2014 by ttthailand

[Robert24]

NomadJoe is right. I don't understand why not all banks implement the chip technology like bangkok bank. They must loose a lot of money to those criminals and Bangkok Bank loves to advertise this competitive advantage over other banks.

[NamKangMan]

Cut off their right hand.... Send a message !

You are a major part of the reason for ongoing conflicts in this world. Go and live in Saudi please!

hEaDy...If you have never been scammed then you should not talk...

I had one of my cards copied and lost a ton of money to these lowlifes .... It took a lot of paperwork and a few phone calls to get everything back to normal. This was a major inconvenience for me and everyone else they scam.... I have nothing but contempt for scum like this .... Cut off both his hands like someone else suggested.

Total scum lowlifes !!!

You wouldn't buy timeshere here, and you wouldn't rent a jet-ski here etc etc - so why would you use an ATM card that is linked to an account that has your life savings in it, or a considerable amount of your money on it / in it?

Just keep a floating balance of 30,000 baht on the account with the card you use, and that's the most you can / will ever lose. It's not rocket science.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming you for being skimmed, unlike the General who said women who wear a bikini are asking to be raped.

I'm just saying, minimise your risk / exposure / loss, in the event you are skimmed.

[Drew rolf]

Just recently Russians are allowed unlimited visa runs ,God knows why,let honest hard working farang who contribute to the thai economy have these privileges,and respect the Thai way,Russians are a rude arrogant bunch of pricks who come here and treat the Thais like dirt,piss off Russia and go away,

[mikiea]

From his physical appearance, he looks like a drug user/addict.

[mikiea]

cant stop smileing, love the finger point. :-)

[Fallangpakwan]

I was told a few days back by a BBL employee that their ATM card with the chip will be accepted by other banks ATM's next year.