Fake credit cards can come in many different formats. First of all, there is the digital variant, where hacked credit card information is used to buy goods and services online. But the biggest threat is the so-called “cloned cards”, which allow criminals to cash out the cards through bank ATMs. A major fake credit card factory has been shut down in London this week, which is a great victory for law enforcement agencies.
Fake Credit Cards Pose a Legitimate Threat
Thanks to a well-coordinated attack between the Met’s Falcon Task Force Unit and police officials, a major fake credit card factory has been shut down. Hacked credit card information and bank details were being used on a large scale in the UK and across mainland Europe. All of these payment tools were linked to one particular UK phone number, which made the investigation a lot easier.
Tracing the phone number in question led to the address of Gabriel Yew in London. Law enforcement agencies performed a raid on the house, and arrest Yew in the process. Their raid turned out to be a major success, as they found thousands of blank cards waiting to be encoded with stolen credit card information.
But that is not all, as the police also confiscated several embossing machines as well as printing devices. Additionally, Yew’s home address was stashed with even more blank cards and embossing devices. As it turns out, the not only created these fake credit cards, but also ran a side business of falsifying documents. It is evident he was a large-scale criminal, and hi arrest will put a lot of minds at ease.
Yew had very little option other than to plead guilty to all of these charges, and the has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison. In fact, four of this customers, who were in possession of fake ID documents and fake credit cards at the time of their arrest, have been sentenced as well.
This news goes to show consumers need to be more careful when using their payment card information. It remains unclear if Yew purchased these details from the darknet, or had this down skimming devices to obtain the necessary credentials. One thing’s for sure, though: using credit cards, either online or offline, remains a significant fraud risk.
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