The Primorsky Territory Police suppressed the activity of an organized group
"The police have stopped the activities of an organized group whose members are suspected of committing a series of thefts of money from current accounts of citizens by way of illegal acquiring of information," - said the official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Elena Alekseeva.
The preliminary investigation found that for copying personal data of bank card holders, the offenders had used sets of special technical devices - the so-called skimmers.
Arriving in Vladivostok, the suspects, three residents of St. Petersburg, installed the skimmers on the ATM, located in one of the malls. Then, using the criminally obtained information, they copied it on the magnetic strips of plastic cards blanks. After that they withdrew cash of cardholders using ATMs in Moscow, cities of the USA and Indonesia.
The amount of damage caused by the activities of the group exceeded 7 million rubles. The investigation unit of the MIA Administration for the city of Vladivostok initiated a criminal case on this fact. Currently, in the criminal case there are over a hundred victims. Three members of the organized group were detained. They were charged with committing the crime and were taken into custody.
"During the searches in the homes of the suspects the Police seized technical equipment for reading the information from bank cards: skimmers, microcameras and applications for card readers, computers and mobile phones, "- explained Alekseeva.
The operation was conducted simultaneously in several regions of Russia. As part of the special operation in Murmansk the police from the Primorsky Territory stopped a similar crime attempted by one of the offenders who tried to install a skimmer on the ATM in a mall.
In addition, in March 2015 in Brooklyn, the New York police arrested two citizens who, according to investigators, are related to the said organized community. At their disposal there were thirty-seven fake credit cards of Russian citizens. Via the Interpol channels requests have been sent to the New York police.
The criminal investigation continues.
Press-Center of the MIA of Russia
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