DUBAI // Police say they have arrested three of five members of an international gang that uses high-tech equipment in ATMs to steal credit card data.
The suspects were detected by Dubai Police as part of an operation called “Ramadan Cannon”, because it coincided with the firing of the field gun announcing iftar. The other two suspects are being pursued in a European country in collaboration with Interpol.
Maj Gen Khamis Al Mazeina, chief of Dubai Police, said the gang made sure it never sent the same member to a target country twice, and never used data from the stolen credit card in the country in which it was issued.
He said the suspects caught in Dubai had almost 60 stolen cards in their possession when arrested.
Maj Gen Al Mazeina said the gang would plant a device equipped with a scanner and a camera in ATMs to scan credit card data as clients conducted transactions. They would then provide the data to their accomplices in Europe to produce fake cards.
A team from Dubai Police’s economic crimes department acted on information from trusted sources and caught the suspects inside an ATM booth.
A police patrol saw one of the suspects at the ATM talking on his phone, while a second suspect stood watch and a third waited in a car to take them to their hotel.
The suspects are wanted in European countries and North America.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
