Costa Rica is among the countries used by a European criminal organization that cloned cards using the method known as ‘skimming’.
A joint operation between the National Police of Spain, Europol and Eurojust resulted in about 30 arrests. In total, 21 of the suspects are Spanish and 9 are Bulgarians.
Skimmers are devices installed at ATMs to copy the magnetic strip of credit or debit cards. It has a fake slot to copy the band just when a transaction is made. Similarly, the cardholder’s PIN is extracted.
The Spanish police counted a total of 200 attacks carried out in ATMs located in that country.
They sent the data of the magnetic strips of the cards, obtained with the devices installed in the ATMs, to members of the organization located in countries as diverse as United States, Costa Rica, Peru, Dominican Republic, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia or Vietnam… Information recipients cloned this information and used it to make cash withdrawals from non-updated ATMs with systems for reading cards with chip and that allow the use with magnetic stripe,”
reported the police last week.
The investigations began in 2014 when an increase in the placement of skimmers was detected.
In the framework of the organization, the investigators confirmed that the Bulgarians were in charge of installing the equipment at ATMs.