A billion taken in bank card scam

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A billion taken in bank card scam
Springhill Care Group
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Over 200 people have been arrested in connection
with a massive bank card fraud that may have
bilked banks and clients out of a billion yuan
(159 million), the Xinhua News Agency reported
yesterday.
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The Ministry of Public Security detained 208
people in eight provinces and municipalities.
Police said they confiscated thousands of bank
cards and have frozen 150 bank accounts. Police
in eight regions coordinated the bust on June 11,
following a lengthy investigation of key suspects
including a Taiwanese surnamed Wu and a South
Korean surnamed Park.The investigation began in
November 2011, when two Taiwanese were caught
using a counterfeit bank card to withdraw cash
from an automatic teller machine (ATM) in
Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, according to the
ministry. 
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A similarly faked card was used three days later
when another suspect tried to withdraw money from
an ATM on Jiefang Road in the city. The police
investigation concludes that banks in South Korea
and Thailand were the main targets of the
swindle.Local police in Shaoxing confirmed to
the Global Times yesterday that 146 suspects were
arrested in the city alone."All 208 suspects
are now here for questioning, and no further
details can be provided at the moment," a police
officer surnamed Sun from Shaoxing public
security bureau, told the Global Times.
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The Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post reported
that the bust involves the largest amount of
money and the most suspects of any bank card
fraud in China. It is not known how the gang may
have managed to swindle hundreds of millions of
yuan from Chinese ATMs without being detected
earlier. Police say suspects in South Korea
bought the phone numbers of bank clients online,
and managed to scam them by posing as bank
officials who were concerned their accounts were
at risk, said Xinhua. The clients were told to
use their account number and password to log onto
seemingly official South Korean websites. After
obtaining the bank client's account information,
it was passed to cohorts of Taiwanese origin, who
forged bank cards enabling money to be withdrawn
from ATMs in China.
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"Multinational supervision of such a crime is
quite difficult due to a lack of information
sharing and cooperation," Hong Yanrong, a
professor of Law School in Peking University,
told the Global Times. "Such fraud involving
several nations is easier to commit."  The
banks that were targeted include several Korean
and Chinese banks, the newspaper
reported.Police have made arrests in 50,000
bank card frauds since 2008, noted Xinhua.