ATM card data theft tricks exposed

After entering Vietnam, some Chinese people secretly installed devices to steal customer information at ATMs to commit theft.

Recently, Vietnamese authorities have continuously arrested groups of Chinese people entering Vietnam through tourism. In fact, these groups came to Vietnam to "practice" theft. Many ATMs located in banks or public places are used by high-tech devices to steal customers' personal account information in order to appropriate money.

"Witch" invades ATM

In early July 2017, through reconnaissance and local situation assessment, the Financial, Monetary and Investment Security Department of Hanoi City Police discovered a group of Chinese people who had signs of secretly installing devices to steal customers' account information with the aim of forging ATM cards to appropriate assets.

Specifically, on July 13, at some ATMs of a Chinese bank with a branch in Vietnam, a group of people appeared to have attached a super small camera and a recording cable with a memory card. Upon receiving the information, the Department of Financial, Monetary and Investment Security advised and instructed the bank's leaders and employees to increase inspections, install additional camera systems to monitor, supervise and record, and arrange security forces at the ATM area.

After nearly 2 weeks of ambush, on the morning of July 27, at the ATM mentioned above, the authorities discovered 2 subjects in the above group returning to the ATM. The detectives secretly followed and discovered that this group was temporarily staying at 2 hotels in Trung Hoa ward, Cau Giay district, Hanoi...

At around 6:30 p.m. the same day, when the two young men came to get the device, the forces raided and caught them red-handed. Checking the subject's residence, the authorities seized 248 card blanks, of which 245 cards had no data and 3 cards had data, a device to record information on the card, a camera, a recorder, a data recorder to print information on the card blanks, 2 laptops, many chips, memory cards, accessories to attach to ATM keyboards, batteries, a welding machine, tape...

The Chinese group was led by Shao Hai Meng.

Authorities have clarified the group of subjects involved in the case including: Shao Hai Meng (born in 1988), residing in Linjin City, Shandong Province; Qu Guo Hui (born in 1979), residing in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province; Lu Jin Ghe (born in 1979), residing in Lingyun District, Jiangxi Province; Li Chun Gui (born in 1975), residing in Kunming City, China.

At the police station, the subjects confessed that from July 24, the Shao Hai Meng group entered Vietnam through the Huu Nghi - Lang Son border gate. After that, the subjects went to ATMs in Hanoi to install electronic devices to steal customers' account information for the purpose of appropriating money. Some of the devices placed at the ATMs earlier (on July 13) were carried out by another group of subjects...

Exposing criminal tricks

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thanh Long, Head of the Financial, Monetary and Investment Security Department, said that recently, the situation of foreigners, especially Chinese people, secretly installing devices into ATMs in Vietnam to record data, thereby counterfeiting ATM cards and stealing money from customers has become complicated and tends to increase, causing fear among customers and negatively affecting the security and safety of credit institutions. The criminals are gang-like in nature with sophisticated methods and tricks and a strict division of labor.

Police discovered evidence at the place where the group of Chinese people resided.

“The form of stealing ATM cardholder account information that criminals carry out is not new, but it is becoming more popular again. Most cases of ATM card information theft in the country are cards made using magnetic strip technology (magnetic cards). Currently, most banks are still issuing ATM cards using magnetic strip technology, which is a type of card that does not ensure high data security and is very easy to copy. In the case of customers withdrawing money at ATMs, they need to observe whether there is any strange device or not. If they detect or have any suspicion, they should not make transactions to avoid the risk of losing information, losing money, and immediately notify the authorities,” Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thanh Long advised.

According to the commander of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department, Hanoi City Police, the use of high technology to steal money at ATMs is quite sophisticated. The subjects often use the trick of attaching a data copying device with the same color as the ATM body right in front of the card reader slot. When the cardholder inserts the card to make a transaction, this device will copy the customer's credit card information. At the same time, on the roof of the ATM card slot cabin, there is a secret camera attached to record the card's password number. Once they have this information, criminals will use specialized equipment and software to counterfeit cards and steal money.

Major Nguyen Duc Tuan, Head of the Banking Security and Counterfeit Money Crime Prevention Team, Department of Financial Security, Investment, said that to limit this, some Vietnamese banks have also issued debit cards using fingerprint recognition technology. However, the technology upgrade of banks is not synchronized due to different investment costs of banks.

According to VNN