ORGANISED
GANG'S CARD FRAUD FACTORY BUSTED BY SPECIALIST POLICE UNIT
-
Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit make arrests in West Midlands
- Stolen PIN pads and hundreds of fake cards seized from counterfeit
card factory
The
Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU) - the special police
unit that tackles cheque and card fraud crime in the UK - has raided
a sophisticated counterfeit card factory in Birmingham. Two people
have been arrested in connection with this raid and were charged
last night (12 August) with conspiracy to defraud.
Detective
Chief Inspector John Folan, who heads up the Unit, said: "These
arrests are a significant development in our fight against the organised
criminal gangs responsible for this type of fraud. To date, compromised
chip and PIN terminals have been found in less than 30 retail outlets
throughout the UK. Together with the banking and retail industries
we are working to ensure this figure is minimised. We are sending
a very clear warning to fraudsters these crimes will not be tolerated,
and that we will continue to target them and disrupt their fraudulent
activity."
Equipment
needed to steal card details and make counterfeit cards on a massive
scale - including stolen chip and PIN terminals, card account numbers,
a card reader/writer, computer software and fake magnetic stripe
cards - was found in the premises. Early indications are that these
criminals have been tampering with retailers' chip and PIN terminals
in order to steal card transaction data and PINs from these machines.
With
these details, criminals are able to create fake magnetic stripe
cards that can be used fraudulently in countries that have yet to
roll out chip and PIN. This type of fraud - fraud abroad - increased
77% last year, totalling £207.6 million.
The DCPCU is fully sponsored by the banking industry through APACS
- the UK payments association, and has an ongoing brief to help
stamp out organised card and cheque fraud across the UK. It is a
unique body that comprises officers from the Metropolitan and City
of London police forces who work alongside banking industry fraud
investigators.
Sandra
Quinn, director of corporate communications at APACS said: "Fighting
fraud is a shared responsibility and we continue to work with law
enforcement and retailers to tackle the organised criminal gangs
responsible. Chip and PIN remains the safest method of payment for
goods and services, and, in the unlikely event a cardholder is an
innocent victim of this or any type of fraud, they enjoy excellent
protection under The Banking Code, which means that they will not
suffer any financial loss."
Jane
Milne, British Retail Consortium (BRC) Director of Business Environment,
said: "Customers should be assured that UK retailers always
take the protection of cardholder data seriously and are continuing
to invest millions of pounds to enhance existing security measures.
BRC members have been working closely with the police and APACS
to
further their investigations and minimise any impact on customers."
ENDS
For further information contact the APACS Press Office:
T: Sandra Quinn 020 7711 6234 / Jemma Smith 020 7711 6340 / Mark
Bowerman 020 7711 6251 / Michelle Meyer 020 7711 6316
E: press@apacs.org.uk
Notes
to editors:
1
APACS is the trade body that gives banks, building societies and
card issuers a forum where they can work together on non-competitive
issues. We help manage the way that businesses and individuals in
the UK move their money around - this covers cash, credit and debit
cards, cheques and automated payments such as direct debits, salary
payments and online/phone transactions. We lead the fight against
banking fraud and twice a year we publish figures on payment industry
fraud losses.
2 The DCPCU was launched on 29 April 2002 as a two-year pilot. Following
the successful conclusion of this trial, it was established as a
permanent Unit - a funding commitment of £3m per year by the
banking industry - with an ongoing brief to help stamp out organised
card and cheque fraud. Since its inception, the DCPCU has been responsible
for more than £230 million in savings from reduced fraud activity
and has recovered more than 244,000 counterfeit cards and card numbers.
The Unit is jointly resourced, with APACS and its members providing
fraud specialists and administrators who work alongside police officers
and civilian staff from the City of London and Metropolitan Police.
3
The Payments Industry and Police Joint Intelligence Unit (PIPJIU)
was officially launched on 10 March 2008. It is an enhanced intelligence
unit - the result of the amalgamation of the banking industry's
Fraud Intelligence Bureau (FIB), the body that formerly distributed
information between the banking industry and law enforcement throughout
the UK - and the intelligence section of the DCPCU.