Two French skimmers arrested with fake cards and drugs in Krabi

[Lite Beer]

Two French skimmers arrested with fake cards and drugs in Krabi

KRABI: -- Two French card skimmers were arrested Friday night after they used skimming cards to withdraw more than three million baht in cash from several ATMs in Phang-nga and Krabi provinces in the South.

They were identified by Krabi police chief Pol Man Gen Nantadech Yoinual as Mr Farhemour Adrien Charles Baptiste, 22, and Mr Frauland Julen Patrick, 21.

Police said they seized 200,000 in cash, three packages of marijuana weighing 48 grammes, and 200 skimming cards in their possession.

A Toyota Yaris sedan with Bangkok registration was also seized.

He said that the police stepped up monitoring foreigners withdrawing cash from ATM snafter being alerted by several commercial and state banks that foreign skimming gangs from Europe have entered Krabi and Phan-nga and they have withdrawn more than three million baht in cash from several banks using skimming cards since January to March 6.

Police have secured video footages from several banks in Krabi but the images of the foreign skimmers and their vehicles were obscure.

It was until yesterday that the bank has sought cooperation from Krabi police when it detected latest withdrawals from several ATMs in the town, the police officer said.

Police were deployed and the two were seen withdrawing cash at an ATM and drove away. They were followed and stopped at Ao Nang and arrested, the officer said.

He also said he would seek information from Phuket police as both stayed in Phuket.

They were initially charged with drug, and use of fake cards to withdraw cash.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/two-french-skimmers-arrested-with-fake-cards-and-drugs-in-krabi

-- Thai PBS 2015-03-07

[BeforeTigers]

This is Asia.
I say give em the corporal punishment they expect and deserve.

[Lite Beer]

French skimmer gang members ‘bought fake cards in Phuket’
Eakkapop Thongtub



Alanis and Hemour in custody last night.

PHUKET: Police in Krabi last night (March 6) arrested two French men believed to be members of an ATM skimming gang.

The two admitted that they had withdrawn money from ATM machines in Phang Nga and Krabi for two months before they were caught, using cloned cards they bought in Patong.

Adrien Char Baptiste Hemour, 21, and Julien Patrick Alandis, 22, both from Marseilles, were caught in possession of B227,350 in cash and 265 cloned ATM cards, which they said they had bought from a foreigner in Patong.

They were also in possession of six mobile phones, a Toyota Yaris car with Bangkok plates and three bags of marijuana.

The duo told the police that they bought the cards from “a black man” in Patong for 2,000 Euros (about B80,000) and also bought marijuana from a bar worker in the same area.

Moves to arrest them started after a complaint was made to police by a bank in the area about withdrawals in January. As other complaints came in police were able to identify the two from CCTV footage.

Krabi police commissioner Maj Gen Nantadech Yoynuan said that the police have yet to establish the identity of the black man who sold the pair the cloned cards, but believe he may be a member of a known skimmer gang, some of whose members have already been arrested.

Bank staff are working to total up the thefts from depositors who, they say, are mostly from abroad, not from Phuket or surrounding provinces.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/french-skimmer-gang-members-bought-fake-cards-in-phuket-51299.php

-- Phuket News 2015-03-07

[pistachios]

French looking guys with french sounding names! And nobody cares to comment this topic, how peculiar.

[Rykbanlor]

You couldn't be possibly suggesting that if these guys had, let's say Russian, or Arabic names, that we'd be on the 3rd page of the thread by now?

To be fair, I have noticed that Krabi news stories seem to generate some of the shortest threads. Guess folks are more interested in the Phukets and Pattayas.

[robertthebruce]

How daft these two are.... big mistake for sure...

Prison in Thailand is not for the faint hearted...

and for sure there will be some echoes of ''Ooh La La''...

[96tehtarp]

Thailand is becoming the skimming hub of the world.

Last year my Bangkok Bank visa card had fraudulent purchases from France. Coincidence?

[surfinglife]

How disappointing that they are not black. But white trash bashing feels just as good:-)

[Thorgal]

Thailand is becoming the skimming hub of the world.

Last year my Bangkok Bank visa card had fraudulent purchases from France. Coincidence?

Does the bank pay you back or not ?

[transam]

How disappointing that they are not black. But white trash bashing feels just as good:-)

Lo-life have many colours...........Show the pics to their mums............Very proud of their offspring eh......

[96tehtarp]

Thailand is becoming the skimming hub of the world.

Last year my Bangkok Bank visa card had fraudulent purchases from France. Coincidence?

Does the bank pay you back or not ?

I paid only an administrative fee. It took about 2 months for their investigation to clear it.

The same thing happened with an overseas visa card a few years ago. In that case it was 100USD admin fee and about 70USD to have the replacement card sent by DHL.

[pistachios]

In case thai banks are reading this : micro chips cards have been used for about 25 years in Europe now. Maybe you should look into this new technology.

[KarenBravo]

Is it me, or, does it seem like there is a veritable plague of French card skimmers lately?

[LivinginKata]

Thailand is becoming the skimming hub of the world.

Last year my Bangkok Bank visa card had fraudulent purchases from France. Coincidence?

Does the bank pay you back or not ?

Never heard of a Thai bank paying back skimmed cash. I lost 50,000 baht with Kasikorn from skimmed card, bank no help at all, make police report, I never heard from them again.

On the other hand a UK guy I know had his UK card skimmed 2 weeks ago in Rawai. Charges appeared in Bangkok and Udon Thani, some 80,000 baht over 3 days. He stopped the card, made police report, reverse phone charge his UK bank, explained the situation. Over the phone they refunded those charges to his account, gave him 20 quid for his inconvenience. Very different attitude to Thai banks.

[Thorgal]

Thailand is becoming the skimming hub of the world.

Last year my Bangkok Bank visa card had fraudulent purchases from France. Coincidence?

Does the bank pay you back or not ?

Never heard of a Thai bank paying back skimmed cash. I lost 50,000 baht with Kasikorn from skimmed card, bank no help at all, make police report, I never heard from them again.

On the other hand a UK guy I know had his UK card skimmed 2 weeks ago in Rawai. Charges appeared in Bangkok and Udon Thani, some 80,000 baht over 3 days. He stopped the card, made police report, reverse phone charge his UK bank, explained the situation. Over the phone they refunded those charges to his account, gave him 20 quid for his inconvenience. Very different attitude to Thai banks.

Perhaps a reason that skimmers come over to LOS because there's no reimbursement in case of catch.

[stevenl]

Thailand is becoming the skimming hub of the world.

Last year my Bangkok Bank visa card had fraudulent purchases from France. Coincidence?

Does the bank pay you back or not ?

Never heard of a Thai bank paying back skimmed cash. I lost 50,000 baht with Kasikorn from skimmed card, bank no help at all, make police report, I never heard from them again.

On the other hand a UK guy I know had his UK card skimmed 2 weeks ago in Rawai. Charges appeared in Bangkok and Udon Thani, some 80,000 baht over 3 days. He stopped the card, made police report, reverse phone charge his UK bank, explained the situation. Over the phone they refunded those charges to his account, gave him 20 quid for his inconvenience. Very different attitude to Thai banks.

Perhaps a reason that skimmers come over to LOS because there's no reimbursement in case of catch.

Why would they care about that?

[maidee]

all this skimming and thai bank don't feel it is time to upgrade to chipped one's ?

[KarenBravo]

all this skimming and thai bank don't feel it is time to upgrade to chipped one's ?

That would cost the bank money. As they don't reimburse skimmed money, where's the incentive?

The bank I use, Bangkok Bank does have a chip. The bad news, is that I can only use it in Bangkok Bank ATMs.

[NamKangMan]

Thailand is becoming the skimming hub of the world.

Last year my Bangkok Bank visa card had fraudulent purchases from France. Coincidence?

Wait until the technology is embraced by the Thai's.

[lucifer666]

all this skimming and thai bank don't feel it is time to upgrade to chipped one's ?

Both my Thai cards are chipped

[taipan1949]

Here we go again. Obvious Arabs passing themselves off as FRENCH. The French Government needs to start pulling back passports of these <removed>.

[NamKangMan]

all this skimming and thai bank don't feel it is time to upgrade to chipped one's ?

Chipped cards can be read as well.

[KarenBravo]

all this skimming and thai bank don't feel it is time to upgrade to chipped one's ?

Chipped cards can be read as well.

Yes, they can, but, it's highly unlikely (check it out on Google) as it needs specialist equipment and takes a long time.

With a chipped card, before the PIN is entered, an authentication process is initiated using randomly generated and encrypted numbers.

If you can't get through this phase, you can't enter a PIN.

The chip is to stop cards being cloned.

[nithisa78]

http://www.transparency.org/cpi2014/results

[NamKangMan]

all this skimming and thai bank don't feel it is time to upgrade to chipped one's ?

Chipped cards can be read as well.

Yes, they can, but, it's highly unlikely (check it out on Google) as it needs specialist equipment and takes a long time.

With a chipped card, before the PIN is entered, an authentication process is initiated using randomly generated and encrypted numbers.

If you can't get through this phase, you can't enter a PIN.

The chip is to stop cards being cloned.

As posted in another thread, recently.

It's the guy standing close behind you in the ATM queue with an RFID "sniffer" while you have your ATM card in your hand, down by your side, that you have to be mindful of.

Not a lot of specialist equipment needed KB. It just adds another step to the skimming process.

The use of the target's smartphone is interesting. Bluetooth or WiFi has a longer range, so, they will not have to be close to the chip to gain its data.

[KarenBravo]

Oh bugger......

[NamKangMan]

Oh bugger......

I've been aware of the RFID sniffers for a long time. Nothing new, complicated, or expensive there.

The smartphone hack was news to me.

I suppose it's similar to computer software pirating. The companies find another lock, and the pirates just find another key.

[Thorgal]

Here we go again. Obvious Arabs passing themselves off as FRENCH. The French Government needs to start pulling back passports of these <removed>.

You need to be optimistic that French Minister Of Justice Taubira will urge your request for the skimmers.

She was born in Cayenne...by the way...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiane_Taubira

Both skimmers are non-arab French citizens : one is named Baptiste, means 'baptised' and to my knowledge no Muslims are baptised.

The orther one , Arlandis, is from Spanish origin, close to Valencia.

So was the previous French Prime minister Manuel Valls...but originates from Barcelona.

Please consider in the future the logic naturalization processes from European citizens in the European Union...without the Arabs...

Edited March 7, 2015 by Thorgal

[Lite Beer]

Krabi:- Two Frenchmen have been arrested in Krabi for having allegedly using fake credit cards to withdraw cash from ATM machines in Krabi and Phang Nga and having marijuana in possession.

Farhemour Adrien Charles Baptiste, 22, and Fraaland Julen Patrck, 21, were arrested Friday and Krabin Police chief Pol Maj Gen Nanthadej Yoinuanl hled a press conference at 9 pm Friday to announce it.

Police also displayed 200 white cards, which been written with data stolen from credit cards of western people, 48 grams of marijuana, and Bt200,000 in cash at the press conference. Police also seized a Toyota Yaris car with Bangkok license plate from the two.

Nanthadej said police planned the arrest after several banks filed complaints with the Krabi Police head office that some foreign criminals were using fake credit cards to draw cash from ATM machines in Tambon Bosaen in Phang Nga’s Tabpud district and in Krabi’s Aoluek and Muang districts since January.

Nanthadej said the fake cards have been written with information stolen with skimmer machines in Europe.

The banks complained that over Bt3 million have been stolen so far.

On Friday, police were informed again that fake credit cards were used in Krabi’s Muang district so police prepare teams for making the arrest.

After police checked footage of the ATM machines, police saw the two men’s face and saw their car so police alerted all stations nearby to watch out for the vehicle.

Later on, the Toyota Yaris was spotted in Tambon Aonang so police chased after it and stopped the car at the Aonang police booth. Police found the fake cards and the drug and the cash in the car.

Source: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/806569-two-frenchmen-arrested-with-fake-credit-cards/

-- © thaivisa.com

[johndudorn]

In case thai banks are reading this : micro chips cards have been used for about 25 years in Europe now. Maybe you should look into this new technology.

Well to be honest they are just starting to use chip technology in the US. I am in the technology field and yes I believe Japan was first to use the technology many years ago.An the new Apple Pay has already been hacked and millions of CC information been stolen. I guess this is how they make the cards No! I have multiple CC and only two have the chip and most places do not have the chip reader installed in the US.