£1 million fraud at two petrol stations
21 April 2008
- Scottish police crack credit card fraud
- Staff at stations bribed up to £15,000
- Stolen card details then sold around the world
Police in Scotland have cracked a £1 million credit card scam that has been linked to fund-raising for terrorist groups.
An estimated 5000 credit cards were copied at two petrol stations in Edinburgh, while attempts to steal details from customers at a third station in Kilmarnock were foiled.
The thieves operated by bribing employees at the petrol stations up to £15,000 to fit cloning equipment to card-reading equipment.
Detective Constable Mike Harris of Lothian and Borders specialist fraud unit said: 'You wouldn't notice anything and the staff wouldn't notice anything.
'Someone would come along, download this information and take it away, storing it as a computer programme and sending it on as an email attachment.
'Each card's details were then downloaded onto white plastic - there are websites that sell everything you need to make credit cards.'
Harris warned that the criminals usually withdrew money in small amounts to avoid detection, taking an average of £500 before the cards were blocked by banks.
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