3 men arrested in Moscow skimming case

MOSCOW -- Moscow investigators have arrested three men who they claim stole $700,000 from bank accounts in what officials believe to be the biggest card fraud ever perpetrated in Russia, according to a report in the Moscow Times.

According to the Times, the suspects allegedly used a skimming device and a miniature video camera on 15 ATMs to steal card data and PINs. They then forged cards and withdrew cash from ATMs around the city. Two hundred people were victimized in the scam, according to Irina Volk, a spokeswoman for the city police's economic crime department.

Police began investigating in January after receiving complaints from holders of cards issued by Russian banks, Volk said. The victims reported losses of $2,000 to $3,000 that they said had disappeared from their accounts without their authorization. After reviewing transaction records, police identified the ATMs where illegal withdrawals had occurred.

After placing the ATMs under round-the-clock surveillance, authorities noticed a young man who returned to the same machine several times a day.

On April 15, they arrested Alexei Menshov, 23, a student at the Moscow Automobile Institute. Menshov confessed and named two accomplices, who he said had provided him with the forged cards.

Yury Kazakov, 31, who holds a Ph.D. in a technical science, and Sergei Levitsky, 34, an economics graduate, were arrested on April 21 at an apartment where police discovered a machine that produced the forged cards.

This is not Moscow's first brush with large-scale ATM fraud. In late 1999, some 280 bank cards were compromised after being used at Moscow ATMs. Authorities eventually made arrests connected to that case in London, Munich, Paris and Stockholm, according to the Times.

Volk hinted that there could be further arrests in the current case. "Investigators suspect that some organized criminal group may be involved in fraud of such a scale," she told the Times.

The three suspects have been charged with fraud and could face up to 10 years in prison.