May 2, 2007

NEWS: Skimmers Might be Involved With LTTE

Thousands of drivers in the United Kingdom have found out they may have bankrolled weapons and explosives for Sri Lankan militant rebels to the tune of US$60 million ($90.6 million), while diners in the United States have lost around US$3 million to waiters and conmen.

The drivers and diners are the latest victims of the growing global credit card-skimming scam, in which card details and personal identification numbers are stolen and put together to clone the cards, police said.

Authorities in the U.K. are looking into a crime ring which may have affected upwards of two hundred gas stations across the country by skimming the credit/debit card details of drivers who stopped to fill their tanks. More alarmingly, it seemed that the funds diverted from their rightful owners may have gone to fund anti-government effort by the Sri Lankan rebel group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE’s bloody tactics have made them notorious overseas, and have given rise to fears about the large number of Tamil gas station owners who might be involved.

Complaints of massive, seemingly coordinated scamming at stations in Edinburgh, Norwich, Peterborough, Nottingham, Leeds, Bristol and Hull are now making police wonder if they may have any connection with the LTTE, but representatives are quick to point out that they don’t yet have any solid leads to connect them. The Sri Lankan High Commission in London is not so subtle, however, about their publically stated conviction that there is massive operation in the UK to fund the separatist rebels.

Maxwell Keegel, first secretary at the high commission, said that the scams, when looked at collectively, involve huge sums of money. The quantity of money going missing is disturbing enough, he said, without the suspicion that the funds might be going towards illicit anti-government activity. Keegel also said that one major concern is that gang members might be bribing station employees with the large sums of money that their disposal to cooperate in setting up the schemes.



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