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How One Village Has Been Hit By A Card Cloning GangA small English village has been hit hard by a card cloning gang. The story has been run by a number of papers (9th December 2007) and describes how a small Leicestershire village, Houghton on the Hill, has been targetted by an identity theft gang. It appears that virtually every member of the village has been impacted or is a victim. The village has a shop which doubles up as a garage and it early indications suggest that a card reader has been installed in the shop with a camera being used to record customer PIN numbers. Fake cards have then been produced and money withdrawn around the world. Curious transactions have appeared on residents bank statements from places as diverse as Canada, Australia, Malaysia, India and the Philippines. The Mail on Sunday has reported that up to £80,000 has been withdrawn from accounts so far. Lets hope that this is sorted out as quickly as possible and that the losses are stopped for these unsuspecting people. It might, however, be too much to hope that the card cloning gang be brought to justice... Update - August 2008 A Sri Lankan national, Abdul Samad Mohammed Raik, has appeared in Leicester Crown Court relating to the above cloning of credit and debit cards. He worked for the local Jet petrol station for a period of 13 months and copied cards for just a short time between October and December 2007. He gave himself up to police in March and admitted the crime. He claimed that he owed money to a loan shark and the copying of cards was a way to repay the debt. The loan shark was apparently linked to the Tamil Tigers - a Sri Lankan guerilla group. They provided the equipment for him and ordered to him to copy cards. They also supplied a false Indian passport so that he could leave the country. He was jailed for 2 years and 9 months having admitted possessing a false passport and obtaining property by deception. It is believed that he cloned more than 500 cards and that in total a sum of over £175,000 was stolen from accounts by withdrawing money worldwide. This is clearly a very well organised card cloning gang - none of which appear to have been caught. So many people have been impacted and the scale was so great that locals have nicknamed Houghton on the Hill, "village of the scammed". Please click here to return to the UK Identity Theft news page:
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