News

Russian ATM fraudsters foiled by face mask

July 23, 2012

Was the green face mask their worst mistake? Or the decision to target a card-skimming capital?

Whichever, Thai police in the beach resort city of Pattaya have arrested two Lithuanian nationals believed to be working with an international skimming operation run from Russia.

During the arrest, police seized 30 counterfeit magnetic stripe cards, two black caps, a green mask and $560 in cash, according to a report by the Pattaya Daily News.

Police told the Daily News that the suspects obtained the cards in Lithuania and flew to Thailand posing as tourists. In 149 transactions carried out over three days, the men withdrew cash from ATMs in Pattaya and surrounding areas.

A bank officer at one location observed a man in a green mask using the ATM, and alerted police. Authorities later picked up the suspects on a bus headed to the Bangkok airport for their return flight to Lithuania.

According to the Daily News, the men were university students who got the cards from an ATM skimming gang in their hometown. They agreed to pay the gang 40 percent of their take. They chose Pattaya as their target because it had a high rate of ATM skimming so they thought they'd go unnoticed among all the other thieves.

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