July 2, 2009
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News: CC Fraud Ring Arrested in Sydney
Authorities in Sydney Australia have arrested seven individuals in a massive credit card scam which spanned across Sydney and Melbourne. The complex scam involved the illegal production of more than 1200 fake credit cards used to rack up nearly $6 million of fraudulent charges. Australian Federal Police arrested Tony Hancock who is believed to be the ring leader of the group, on 20 criminal charges including dishonestly obtaining and dealing in personal financial information, conspiracy to cheat and defraud, and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime. According to court documents, Hancock allegedly stole consumers' personal information and turned it over to Kha Weng Foong who produced fraudulent credit cards and Medicare cards. Hancock then retrieved the illegal cards and distributed them to the other individuals to go shopping. Some of the shoppers were arrested in May at Chatswood while on a shopping spree using the fraudulent cards. Many of the products were sent overseas for distribution and sale extending as far as South East Asia.
The Australian Federal Police conducted a number of raids across Sydney and Melbourne which lead to the arrest of five men and a woman said to be the shoppers of the ring. Hancock told the shoppers what to purchase with the illegal credit cards and paid them a percentage of the product's value. During one of the raids at Foong's home, police confiscated a card embosser, encoders, blank credit cards, and computers equipped with special software designed to produce the fake cards. For his role in the scam, Foong has been charged with 12 criminal activities including dishonestly obtaining and dealing in personal financial information, conspiracy to cheat and defraud, and participating in a criminal group.
Additional individuals arrested and facing criminal charges of conspiracy and dealing with the proceeds of a crime are: Quoc Du Hua, Yung Feng Yun, Henley Han, the woman and another man, whose names are unknown. It is believed that some of the credit card victims were individuals living as far away as Britain and Spain. All of the individuals are being held in jail without bond.