India Seeing a Problem with Cloned Payment Cards

Skimming, cloning, counterfeiting of debit/credit cards (lately debit seems to be preferred) has been a major problem in North America and Europe. India (a new giant in the technology field) is now seeing this type of criminal activity hit home.

IBN is reporting:

One swipe is all it takes. When you hand over your credit card to make a payment in a shop or insert it into an Automated Teller Machine (ATM), you could run the risk of being the next victim of an international crime called "skimming".

And this could drain your account of all your money. Skimming is the latest fraud that has hit India hard.

The cyber crime cell of the Chennai Police recently arrested four people for withdrawing money from ATMs through forged credit cards. The police recovered 160 fake international credit cards through which they had planned to withdraw Rs 15 crore.

Link, here.

Interestingly enough, the authorities are blaming this activity as being tied into a gang from the UK, which uses a device (easily available on the Internet) known as a "skimmer."

If this activity continues to grow in India, we are likely to see "skimming devices" attached to ATM machines, likes the ones, reported in other countries.

Card skimming is growing at alarming rates, seems to be highly organized and now the evidence shows that it is becoming a global problem. It will continue to grow as long as the cards can be easily counterfeited with legal devices, which anyone can purchase.

Here is an earlier post on why technology crimes have become too easy:

Are We Addressing Cyber Crime from the Wrong End