Three Bulgarians suspected of copying thousands of debit and credit cards in west and north of Finland

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The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) suspects that the data on the magnetic strips of credit and debit cards of thousands of people in Ostrobothnia and Northern Finland were copied last summer and autumn.
      Three Bulgarian men were arrested in Kokkola in September, and they remain in custody.
      Detective Chief Inspector Ari Pekka Kouva of the NBI says that nearly 10,000 people may have fallen victim to the scam, and that the information of hundreds of them were actually used in withdrawing, or attempting to withdraw money abroad.
     
The three are suspected of having operated from Sweden. Kouva says that they stayed in the Swedish border city of Haparanda, and would take day trips to the Finnish side in a rented car to commit their crimes.
      The frauds involved the use of four so-called skimming devices installed on cash machines. The devices copy information contained in the cards while a video camera recorded the PIN numbers tapped out on the keypad.
      The devices were placed on a number of Otto ATMs in Vaasa, Kokkola, Oulu, Ii, Kemi, and Tornio in shopping malls and other busy places.
     
Kouva says that police learned of nearly 100 cases of ATM skimming last year, up from between 15 and 20 in previous years.
      “We even confiscated about 20 devices. Previously we got only a few each year.”


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Credit card and debit card frauds a growing problem (8.10.2009)
  Debit card copying has spread to automated petrol stations (1.8.2007)

Links:
  US FBI website: Taking a Trip to the ATM? Beware of ‘Skimmers’

Helsingin Sanomat