Police bust fake ATM card ring

January 03, 2012 | 12:53

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A police patrol in District 11 has arrested, a 39-year-old man, who was using fake ATM cards to withdraw money from a booth belonging to the Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) on Binh Thoi Street.

Co Kim Thach was carrying 23 fake ATM cards, three other cards issued by foreign banks, VND48 million in cash and 28 ATM withdrawal receipts from many booths of different banks, including Sacombank, Techcombank, ACB and HSBC.

Thach told the police that he met a foreigner named Cheng who gave him several fake ATM cards on December 28 and asked him to use them to withdraw money from ATMs. Cheng promised to pay Thach 0.1 per cent of the total amount withdrawn.

Thach confessed he had used the fake cards to withdraw about VND56 million from ATMs of various banks so far.

Following Thach’s confession, police raided a hotel room in District 11 and arrested Malaysian national Cheng, who was using a passport in the name of Luis Khoo Boo. The police later found that Cheng’s real name was Loi HawShyan.

The police also arrested two other Malaysian men who were present in the room – Yep Poh Boon and Looi Haw Yang.

A search for the room found more than 40 fake credit cards and ATM cards, several laptops, iPads, printers and ATM card readers, many money transfer receipts and a number of tools used to make fake cards.

The three men said they were provided with pieces of equipment used to create fake cards using information and instructions. They later hired local people like Thach to withdraw money.

The police are expanding their investigation.