STRATEGIC PARTNERS
December 16, 2002
TEL AVIV, Israel -- Israel's National Fraud Squad, as part of an investigation into a scam in which hundreds of bogus Discount Bank ATM cards were created, is exploring the possibility that the suspects sent accomplices to other countries to make cash withdrawals using the forged cards.
According to a report in the Daily Ha'Aretz, authorities arrested two suspects in Herzliya in early December while the suspects were trying to make ATM withdrawals with forged cards. The police discovered four-digit numbers on stickers on each card, apparently the PINs of the original cards.
The money was fraudulently withdrawn from the accounts of hundreds of Israel Discount Bank credit card customers. The police believe a group of forgers with hundreds of cards and PINs dispersed to outlying ATMs in order to make it more difficult for investigators to catch them in the act.
As the means of forgery has still not been discovered, Discount Bank is limiting its gold and platinum card-holders' cash withdrawals to its own ATMs and to sums of NIS 1,000 (about $215 U.S.), an interim measure instigated upon discovery of the fraud.
Customers can withdraw up to NIS 10,000 (about $2,158) per day by calling the Visa CAL hotline and receiving the cash at any of the Postal Bank's 600 branches.
To date, the bank has cancelled 3,000 credit cards, although it is estimated that the actual number of cards illegally duplicated is far lower.So far, NIS 1.5 million in fraud (about $323,694) has been uncovered, according to the report.
