Police round up gang using fake credit cards

RAS AL KHAIMAH // Thirteen men have been arrested on suspicion of trying to use fake credit cards to buy gold and mobile phones worth Dh51,000 (US$13,000). Several outlets were placed under surveillance after shop owners in RAK reported that a number of Asian men had used fake credit cards to buy merchandise. The first four were arrested after allegedly trying to buy mobile phones worth Dh11,000 with a fake card. The store owner alerted the police when the transaction failed, police said, leading to the arrests of the customer and three men waiting in a car.

Two days later, four men were arrested after allegedly trying to buy a number of mobile phones. Acting on information from those detained, police then raided a home in Ajman where they said more forged credit cards were found. Back in RAK, four other suspects were picked up outside a hotel that was under surveillance as the leader of the gang was thought to be staying there. Police said they had raided a room in the hotel where a 13th man was detained and 40 allegedly fake cards seized, as well as laptop computers and a device allegedly used to transfer information from real cards to fraudulent copies.

The suspects, some of whom police said were illegal residents, have also been charged with forgery of legal documents. Major Hamad al Dabany, the deputy chief of investigations for RAK Police, asked the public to report any attempted fraud immediately and to protect personal belongings. [e-mail]