2 French nationals arrested for ATM skimming in Pattaya

[Traveller45]

Sacre Bleu!

I have no idea what that means, it just sounds cool to say when I hear about French things - even though these two are about as French as "Ali Baba & His Band of 40 Thieves".

I spent 10 years in the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, Oman etc). I wonder why I never, ever heard of a Kuwaiti named Jones, Smith, Rodriquez or LeBlanc?

I did meet one, mind you only one, Lebanese guy with the first name of Michelle which was a throw-back to French colonization I'm sure.

Ahem, restrictive immigration Policy I guess is the key. Kuwait never had any colonies, so it didn't have to go through a decolonisation phase. That restrictive immigration policy has its downsides. Any number of decent and hard-working citizen cannot get UAE passports, for example, for all the interest, income and good manners that they have shown, and are sent home when their employment ends. Only 5% of those who live there are UAE nationals. Unless they revise their policy and create a civil society, comprising foreigners as well, they will be all alone in their massive empty shopping malls 30, 40 years from now when the oil ends

[thefactoryoutlet]

Bassem and Hamin really look like the Charlie killers...

[chrisinth]

At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter what passport they are travelling with. What you have is two scroats preying on the elderly.

Thai authorities should allow the elderly permission to carry stun guns and/or pepper spray and travel advisories should tell them under which conditions they should use them.

Spice up their holiday's for them.............................

[balo]

Let them rot in jail !

[Don Aleman]

C 'mon !, arresting foreigners for ATM skimming is a waste of time. Everybody does it and ,

as the banks don't care, leave the skimmers alone ! Personally I am waiting for one of their currency delivery , converted pickups to come by !

[petercool]

Post using profanity removed along with a reply quoting that.

Also a post advocating extreme violence removed as well as some off topic posts

[domdom]

Hello

Being french, I am quite happy they do it in Thailand and got caught.. Hopefully they keep them in jail for a LONG time.. If in France our Justice minister (whose son is in jail for murder) would act for them not to serve one minute in jail, even 5 stars one.. !!!!

Have a nice day..

[nicobangkok]

The level of racism and ignorance is way too high for a forum of expats. Please do some research before posting idiotic comments. You guys sound like you watched only Fox News your whole life.

Around 5-10% of French citizens are children or grand-children of migrants workers from Maghreb that came in the seventies. Most of them still have Arabic names and kept a part of their culture from their parents/grandparents. The large majority of them live peacefully like any French citizen, and practice their religion discreetly.

Like some of you may know, we have a huge unemployment rate in France for various reasons, the foreigner AND foreigner descent are the first victims of it. It's way harder to find a job when your name is Jean than when your name is Mohammed, no matter how educated you are.

Unemployment leads to crime, like in any other country. Those two guys have nothing to do with terrorists, they are just here to be lazy, make easy money and enjoy this beautiful country like we all do. I am not defending them and actually hate them as much as you do. And I do hope they get a fair sentence. But they have nothing to do with the Islamic State, Al-Qaida or whatever.

Fun Fact : the majority of French citizens fighting in Syria are converted, they are not born Muslims, their name are more often Jean than Mohammed.

Yeah, in France sentences for crimes are way too low but this not another debate, but the son of the Justice Minister being in jail is pure hoax, and Extreme Right propaganda for ignorant people. Dom, just google "fils Christiane Taubira prison" and check yourself.

[Petchou]

Those morons are just holding a French passport alas but they are nothing French.

Au contraire, all part of the new face of France...

Personally, I believe the laws of their faith should be applied... If caught stealing, lop off a hand...

Wow faith is now defined by name sound. Incredibly ignorant statement

[nicobangkok]

Come to France and see the middle east.

Come to the UK and see the Middle East among many others.

Come to think of it, I may be wrong, but I don't ever remember reports of UK people skimming ATMs.

Watch this. They interview white Brits being jailed in Thailand for various reasons. I can't find the moment (there is 8 parts of 40mn), but I recall two Brits, a father and his son, in prison for ATM skimming. You are wrong sir.

[NoshowJones]

Come to France and see the middle east.

Come to the UK and see the Middle East among many others.

Come to think of it, I may be wrong, but I don't ever remember reports of UK people skimming ATMs.

Watch this. They interview white Brits being jailed in Thailand for various reasons. I can't find the moment (there is 8 parts of 40mn), but I recall two Brits, a father and his son, in prison for ATM skimming. You are wrong sir.

Well I said I may be wrong.

[jaywalker]

"Bassem, 35, and Hamin, 29" I don't recognize them as French nationals, they might have stolen French passports.

They probably stole their passports in Pattaya, right after & just before some "Police Crackdown".

[yimlitnoy]

I clicked on this news because I wanted to know what the names of those French men looked like... Their names sound like I thought.

[Asiantravel]

Come to France and see the middle east.

Come to the UK and see the Middle East among many others.

Come to think of it, I may be wrong, but I don't ever remember reports of UK people skimming ATMs.

Watch this. They interview white Brits being jailed in Thailand for various reasons. I can't find the moment (there is 8 parts of 40mn), but I recall two Brits, a father and his son, in prison for ATM skimming. You are wrong sir.

You are right and it’s actually in the next video which you can access by simply clicking the small red box in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and it’s about 20 minutes into the video

[Anthony5]

Come to France and see the middle east.

Come to the UK and see the Middle East among many others.

Come to think of it, I may be wrong, but I don't ever remember reports of UK people skimming ATMs.

Not that long ago some UK people got caught in Pattaya for taking the complete ATM with them.

[timendres]

"Pol.Col. Prachaya said one of the suspects would place a skimming device inside the ATM, while the other would look at the PIN number the victims typed on the machine."

The device is rather large.

How do you hide such a thing INSIDE an ATM?

How can you even open one? And without anyone noticing?.

All looks impossible to me.

You can find some excellent videos on YouTube showing how this is done. The skimming device is not placed inside. It is attached to the front of the slot you push your card into. As your card goes into the machine, the skimmer grabs the info on your magnetic strip, then the card goes into the real ATM slot. If you are not looking closely, you will not notice the skimming attachment. Once they have the info on the magnetic strip, they can reproduce the card. Then all they need is your PIN number.

[luckyman]

And you never see a few Brits or Frenchmen do this in say, Emirates, Oman or Saudi Arabia, do you ?

[MiKT]

"Pol.Col. Prachaya said one of the suspects would place a skimming device inside the ATM, while the other would look at the PIN number the victims typed on the machine."

The device is rather large.

How do you hide such a thing INSIDE an ATM?

How can you even open one? And without anyone noticing?.

All looks impossible to me.

You can find some excellent videos on YouTube showing how this is done. The skimming device is not placed inside. It is attached to the front of the slot you push your card into. As your card goes into the machine, the skimmer grabs the info on your magnetic strip, then the card goes into the real ATM slot. If you are not looking closely, you will not notice the skimming attachment. Once they have the info on the magnetic strip, they can reproduce the card. Then all they need is your PIN number.

This is the correct description for some types of skimmers (as shown in those internet video's, but the device in the photograph is not one of these. It is a hand held skimmer (card reader). Look at the arrows on the front that tell you which direction to move the card within the slot. This device does not fit on the front of the ATM over the existing slot.

[soihok]

Off with their heads - please.

[BernieOnTour]

The level of racism and ignorance is way too high for a forum of expats. Please do some research before posting idiotic comments. You guys sound like you watched only Fox News your whole life.

Around 5-10% of French citizens are children or grand-children of migrants workers from Maghreb that came in the seventies. Most of them still have Arabic names and kept a part of their culture from their parents/grandparents. The large majority of them live peacefully like any French citizen, and practice their religion discreetly.

Like some of you may know, we have a huge unemployment rate in France for various reasons, the foreigner AND foreigner descent are the first victims of it. It's way harder to find a job when your name is Jean than when your name is Mohammed, no matter how educated you are.

Unemployment leads to crime, like in any other country. Those two guys have nothing to do with terrorists, they are just here to be lazy, make easy money and enjoy this beautiful country like we all do. I am not defending them and actually hate them as much as you do. And I do hope they get a fair sentence. But they have nothing to do with the Islamic State, Al-Qaida or whatever.

Fun Fact : the majority of French citizens fighting in Syria are converted, they are not born Muslims, their name are more often Jean than Mohammed.

Yeah, in France sentences for crimes are way too low but this not another debate, but the son of the Justice Minister being in jail is pure hoax, and Extreme Right propaganda for ignorant people. Dom, just google "fils Christiane Taubira prison" and check yourself.

yeah - the poor, unemployed, suppressed... as if today's high unemployment rate would have to do something with this.

30 years ago, when France economy was still booming,I staid in Lyon for some weeks. Got 2 times robbed, one time only coming home in my underpants and stripped of everything, one time of that ending up in hospital. They were always attackingg at least in a group of four, these s..kers. And yes: always Pieds Noir - Black Feet with North Arabian background!

In Phuket, from what I experienced, the only "French" causing trouble: again Pieds Noir!

Call me rassist, but the Pieds Noir are the ... and ... from France, not only recently, but since decennials.

(I am not French, by the way...)

Edited February 9, 2015 by BernieOnTour

[hanno]

Love all the "they don't sound French", "they are not French" comments.

Obviously made by people who have never been to France, at least not the last 50 years or so (contrary to some comments, North Africans did not start coming to France last year).

Vive Thaivisa, vive la bigoterie