By Anna Shilongo
WINDHOEK
The Commercial Crime Investigation Unit of the Namibian police in Windhoek has recovered credit cards, debit cards, bank equipment and almost a million dollars in cash after arresting several suspects of different nationalities.
Six suspects were arrested on Monday in possession of cash of N$100 000 while trying to withdraw money from a Bank Windhoek ATM at Black Chain in Katutura.
The six include two Namibians, two Senegalese, one Singaporean and one British national.
The suspects are in police custody and expected to appear today in the Katutura magistrate’s court at 09h00. They face charges of fraud.
According to investigation officers, equipment recovered from the suspects include a money counter used by commercial banks, an ATM card printer, blank cards, a PC, ultraviolet light machine, cell phones, raisers, recharge vouchers, printing ink, passport photos, and stolen debit and credit cards.
Apart from the sophisticated banking equipment found in possession of the suspects ,the police recovered 227.97 Pula (Botswana), 142. 660 Euros, US$668. 531 and about N$109.322.
Speaking at a media briefing yesterday, police spokesperson, Chief Inspector Angula Amulungu, said the suspects were arrested following a police operation.
He said some local banks that detected invalid cards in their system during routine inspection approached the police.
This compelled the police to mount a sting operation that led to the arrests.
He said the six suspects are regarded as international dealers as they were not only targeting Namibian banks but also international banks.
“Most of the cards they had are international cards and that is why they also had a number of recharge vouchers and cell phones, used to communicate locally and internationally with their partners, this is a network,” he said.
Also speaking at the occasion, Bank Windhoek: Cards and Support Service Manager Stoney Steenkamp illustrated how the suspects got hold of people’s accounts.
“They use a skimming device which slides an ATM card into a skimmer and it will read all the account information stored electronically on the magnetic strip, plus, depending on the sophistication, record your personal identification number, or PIN, as you punch it in on the ATM keypad. Next thing you know, your account is notably lighter,” he said.
He said these people do not only target one particular bank but all banks in the country, and that’s why it is necessary for all banks to join forces in combating and preventing this kind of fraud in the near future.
The suspects mostly target ATM machines with no surveillance cameras.
ATM skimming devices come in two flavours: one that interferes with the ATM operation and one that does not.
The skimmer that interferes with the ATM operation is a bit easier to detect because even though customers insert or swipe their cards, it is not the ATM’s card reader so the ATM is not actually being used and the customer does not get any money.
It was reported that in Europe ATM thieves use a greyish, fabricated metal container that looks like the same material, shaped to fit on the ATM but inside is a small laptop computer which prompts the customer with a touch-screen instead of a keypad. The ATM will have a card reader next to it.
In most cases there will be a sign that says ATM instructions have changed.
The customer would then swipe the card again and this would prompt – ‘Welcome’.
This device would have all the instructions that the bank’s ATM has, and customer would slide the card and the computer captures the information, saving it to the hard drive and storing the PIN.
The next thing the customer would see a screen that says, ‘Thank you for using our Bank there has been a malfunction.’
In other cases, the thieves don’t interfere with the normal operation of the ATM.
The skimmer is placed over the card reader but doesn’t block off the reader, and the customer gets money when making a withdrawal.