Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The police on Thursday arrested three east European nationals for stealing moneyfrom bank accounts using forged ATM cards, according to the Public Security Department (PSD).

The perpetrators had stolen JD6,500 by installing card skimmers at ATMs, PSD Spokesperson Lt. Col. Mohammad Khatib told The Jordan Times over the phone on Thursday.

“An employee at a bank in downtown Amman informed us that he had found an ATM card with no name or information on it. We immediately formed a team to look into the issue,” he said.

The perpetrators installed the card skimming devices on the bank’s ATM, which enabled them to read bank cards’ magnetic strips and record customers’ personal identification numbers.

They then used the data to forge duplicate cards and withdraw cash from ATMs, according to Khatib.

Police confiscated 46 forged credit cards from the suspects at the time of their arrest, while a search of their hotel room in downtown Amman revealed another 472 forged cards, in addition to laptops and devices used for ATM fraud, Khatib noted.

The three suspects admitted to carrying out the fraud operation, saying a Bulgarian national had sent them to Jordan to do it, he said, adding that a search is under way for a Jordanian who is suspected of working with them.
According to Khatib, the three suspects will be referred to court soon and face a maximum of one year in prison for forging the ATM cards and stealing the money.

“The penalties need to be stiffened. It is not enough to go to jail for one year for such a crime,” the PSD spokesperson stressed.

In 2009, the police arrested 15 foreigners for their alleged involvement in a wave of ATM fraud in the capital.


* The Jordan Times By Mohammad Ghazal