June 23, 2010
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News: Pin and Chip Fraudster Gets Four and Half
United Kingdom residents can take a temporary sigh of relief in knowing the authorities just put one of the most creative credit card and identity thief away for at least four years. Theogenes De Montford was the ringleader of a chip and pin fraud gang that stole millions of dollars from unsuspecting credit cardholders. De Montford had a great deal of potential in the engineering field as a graduate in engineering software and yet for greed purposes choose to use his talents on crime. According to The judge, Mr. Recorder Nicholas Rhodes, De Montford used his engineering knowledge to modify the pin entry devices used by customers to enter their credit card number at gas stations across England.
Adam Budworth, for the prosecution said the De Montford was most likely the "most prolific chip and pin fraudsters in the UK." Budworth also noted that the incidents of chip and pin credit card fraud has greatly reduced since De Montford's arrest and imprisonment. De Montford and his gang stole the credit card information of over 35,000 motorists as they filled their gas tanks as various stations including Shell and Texaco. His cleverly designed circuit board was so small that it fit inside the card swipe machine. The tiny device captured the PIN code and card details via a Bluetooth which De Montford retrieved via his laptop computer.
De Montford came to the UK in 2001 where he recruited other gang members to assist in his credit card fraud scheme. After he was caught him on surveillance video tampering with the chip and pin devices, the authorities arrested De Montford. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to possess articles for use in fraud occurring between late 2008 to September 2009. He was sentenced to four and half years in prison. Three of De Montford's co-conspirators, Rajakumar Thevathasan, Rashid Hassan, and Usman Mahmood received sentences of three years each for conspiracy to defraud.