UK Crime Unit Bust Card Fraud Gang
Officers from the UK’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit helped to jail members of one of the world’s most accomplished identity theft gangs. The gang have been responsible for cloning cards and defrauding bank account holders from the UK, America and several European countries.
The gang were able to create false identities and clone credit cards in order to purchase electrical goods, which were subsequently sold on e-bay.
It is believed that the scam has been running for as long as ten years generating millions of pounds for the gang.
A former Moscow bank manager, Anton Dolgov, was the head of the gang and had offices in Spain and north Kensington. Dolgov stood trial at London’s Harrow Crown court.
After a tip off from an ongoing Spanish investigation, officers from the Serious and Organised Crime Unit raided premises in London were significant amounts of evidence were found. However, much of this evidence was destroyed as one of the gang members, Alexsei Kostap, was able to flick a power switch that wiped most of the computer databases. Police IT experts were unable to retrieve the information, which will now be lost for ever.
Estonian Kostap denied any involvement in the scam but was, however, found guilty of conspiracies to defraud, obtain services by deception, acquire, use and posses criminal property, and conceal, disguise, convert, transfer or remove criminal property.
David Hewett, for the prosecution, told the court that despite the scam probably lasting ten years, the charges covered the last 18-months, during which time the gang made £750,000.
He added: “ However, it is quite clear that the total amount of money defrauded will never be known.”
The cloned cards were used to buy products such as digital cameras, computers and iPods. Online gambling sites were also targeted
The cloned cards were also used to make thousands of small payments to WorldPay and PayPal, which they later pocketed.
The bust strikes a serious blow against organised gangs who commit identity fraud, which has seen a drastic rise over the last few years.
Scammers have also been targeting e-bay and PayPal with both firms initiating new methods to combat this type of fraud and protect their customers.
Alisdair Milton
8th December 2006
More Information:
- Identity Theft
Identity theft is a major issue in the UK, and with good reason. It has been estimated that it can take up to sixty hours of work to recover a stolen identity, and in the worst cases, cost up to £8000 to put right. But what can be dome to prevent this?
- ‘Vishing’ – A New Type Of Credit Card Fraud
With the full integration of Chip and PIN technology in 2005, credit card fraudsters now have to look for ever more ingenious ways to try and defraud UK credit cardholders. Topping this list is a very ingenious and sophisticated telephone scam that fraudsters are using to obtain the credit details of cardholders – ‘vishing’.
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