Credit card skimming probe goes global

Sydney fraud squad detectives are heading to Wollongong to investigate links between northern suburbs credit card skimming and international fraud gangs.

The move follows yesterday's announcement by police that a nationwide card skimming scam had already netted more than $50 million in NSW.
Every Australian capital city and some regional centres have been hit by the scam, believed to involve teams of criminals from India.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars was stolen from Austinmer and Thirroul residents via their credit and bank cards in November.
Fraud squad boss Detective Superintendent Col Dyson said criminal gangs were committing armed robberies to get hold of EFTPOS machines used in the nationwide scam.
"This is an international group - it's a very large group," Mr Dyson said.
"The members of that group arrive in Sydney and other capital cities in Australia, they travel between capital cities, commit these offences and leave the country again.
"There are as many as 50 people involved in this particular group. Each has their own role and function to play. There are organisers that are in the country from time to time and then go back overseas again."
Wollongong detective Senior Constable Michael Bugg said police had received leads on the northern suburbs scam after the release of images of three men on January 5.
He said detectives from Strike Force Wigg, established in June to investigate card skimming scams, would visit Wollongong on Monday. The strike force is working with interstate and overseas investigators.
To date, six people have been arrested in NSW.
Mr Dyson said the rising number of incidents had forced police to issue a warning.
"The criminal activity has certainly increased in very recent times. There are also operational reasons why we didn't want to expose this, but the time has arrived now for the community to be made aware," he said.
The process used to skim funds occurs after EFTPOS terminals are "compromised".
"The EFTPOS terminals are removed from stores. Some of those we've charged already have in fact been charged with armed robbery and the subject of those armed robbery offences are the EFTPOS terminals," Mr Dyson said.
"They're taken surreptitiously, they're stolen - in other words, shoplifted. And then they're placed into other stores, generally not the store they're removed from."
The modified terminals can then copy information stored on the magnetic strip of debit and credit cards, which can be used to make further withdrawals from the account.
Many affected customers' bank statements show the withdrawals, most commonly amounts of up to $1000, occurring overseas.
Detectives have urged people to change their personal identification numbers (PIN) regularly, check store receipts for irregularities, check bank statements, be aware of how much money is held in an account and not to write down PINs.