International credit card forgery operation smashed

A five-member gang, comprising two Americans, a Romanian and two Arabs, has been arrested for forging credit cards. A police spokesman said that the gang "was one of the most dangerous forgery gangs ever arrested in the country or any other GCC country".

The spokesman said the gang used the forged credit cards to make purchases and withdraw cash from supermarkets and shops and handed over 50 per cent of the goods and money to their agents in these shops.

The spokesman said two members of the gang were caught while they were collecting Dh21,000 from one shop. "A total of nine forged credit cards issued in the names of people abroad were seized from them," he said.

The two Americans admitted that they got the credit cards from a person who lives in Dubai. "In cooperation with Dubai Police, the third member, an American of Arab origin, was arrested along with the fourth member, a Romanian man, who had been arrested in a similar forgery case."

He added that an instrument used for programming and reading the PIN numbers of credit cards was seized. "Some 31 cards without any data on them and other complete cards were also found in the kitchen and the bathroom of the flat," he said.

A gang member told investigators that they were expecting to receive 10 more forged cards from Canada. The gang had an agent in Canada who sent them PIN numbers for credit cards through his well-established contacts in Canadian banks. "The five-member gang then gave forged numbers for the cards using their very sophisticated instrument," the spokesman said.

The gang also sent names and photographs to their agent in Canada who provided PIN numbers for the cards and returned them to the gang here. Following the arrest of the gang, police contacted local banks to evaluate the damage. "This is the first time such a serious crime of forgery has occurred in the UAE, as most forgery cases have occurred abroad and then the forged credit cards brought into the country."