April 13, 2007

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  NEWS: British City Plagued by Scams

  The British city of Norwich, Norfolk is at the nucleus of a region-spanning investigation into a credit card fraud ring after hundreds of people complained they have been victims of skimming. It seems that hundreds of thousands of pounds has been filched from consumers' accounts after their cards had been copied. It seems that the culprit(s) doctored credit card readers at the fuel pumps of at least one major gas station with skimming devices. The pilfered card numbers were then used to withdraw large sums of money in locales as far away as Malaysia, Canada and Singapore.
  
  The recent reports are now being connected to previous scams across the region including frauds in Bury St Edmunds, Peterborough, and last week a service station at Weedon in Northamptonshire was raided after a string of complaints. Local police fielded dozens of complaints at the beginning of this year from people who had been scammed after using the BP fuel pumps at Martineau Lane. A 25-year-old man has been arrested and subsequently released in connection with that incident. The station is currently closed for remodelling.
  
  The scamming technique of cloning cards is known as skimming. Personal data is stolen from the card as it is swiped when used to make a purchase. Card data is then sold for ridiculously small amounts to buyers in foreign countries who use the information to get their hands on heaps of stolen cash. Norwich is ranked as one of the ten worst cities in Britain for credit card scams.
  
  
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