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Last Updated: Oct 12, 2008 - 7:33:09 AM |
Hundreds of card swipers used by retail stores across Europe are
believed to have been tampered by organized crime syndicates in China
and Pakistan, according to US National Counterintelligence Executive
Joel Brenner.
Brenner told The Daily Telegraph that criminals have doctored chip and
PIN machines either during manufacturing in China or shortly after
leaving the production line in order to send shopper credit card
account details overseas. The devices were then expertly resealed and
exported to Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium.
"Previously only a nation state's intelligence service would have been
capable of pulling off this type of operation," Brenner told the
publication. "It's scary."
Hundreds of devices have been copying credit and debit card details
over the past nine months and sending the data by way of mobile phone
networks to tech-savvy criminals in Lahore, Pakistan, The Telegraph
reports.
MasterCard International has alerted stores in affected areas and
determined doctored devices can most easily be revealed by virtue of
weighing an extra three to four ounces due to the additional parts they
contain. MasterCard first uncovered the plot at the start of the year
after detecting suspicious charges to British and other European
accounts.
The scam is believed to have resulted in the loss of tens of millions
of pounds by criminals creating cloned cards, making phone or internet
transactions, or withdrawing cash from the account. The Telegraph
reports the thieves usually wait at least two months before using the
stolen data in order to make it harder for investigators to determine
what happened.
Brenner said the scam should motivate card swipe device makers to not
only do more testing, but guard their supply chain in the same way
jewelry suppliers do.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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