Chinese shop owner, 3 Thais arrested for skimming tourist credit cards

A Chinese man and three Thais have been arrested for allegedly skimming the credit card data of 1,200 Chinese visitors to their shops in Bangkok and Chiang Mai and stealing 30-million-baht from them using forged credit cards. Details were released on Monday by Pol Maj Gen Puthipong Musikul, deputy commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB). He said a Chinese man, 42, and three Thai suspects, aged 32 to 33, were apprehended last week after the Chinese embassy sought legal action against criminals who had misused stolen credit card data from 1,200 Chinese tourists in Thailand. They were part of a criminal network operating in China, Thailand and the United States. Pol Maj Gen Puthipong said the CIB launched “CIB Operation Card Shield” last week. Investigators said the credit cards of about 1,200 Chinese visitors to Thailand were skimmed by the gang and the data used to forge fake cards that were used to buy goods and withdraw cash. Total losses were around 6 million yuan, about 30 million baht. Pol Col Krit Worathat, chief of Economic Crime Suppression Division 5 who headed the operation, said all Chinese victims had visited shops in Bangkok and the northern province of Chiang Mai and used their UnionPay credit cards to buy products and services there. The victims made credit card purchases at three dried fruit and souvenir shops in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. The shops were identified as the CM Yummy Fruit Dried Shop and the Fruit Dried Shop in tambon Suthep of Chiang Mai's Muang district and the Yaowarat Fruit Dry Shop on Yaowarat Road in Bangkok. According to Pol Col Krit, the three shops were registered to the Chinese suspect, Chao Ji, 42, and the three Thai suspects, Salinee, 33, Jittra, 32, and Theeraphat, 32. On July 22, police searched the shops and the suspects' three houses. They found 11 computer keyboards equipped with card skimmers, three electronic data capture (EDC) devices, five computers and 18 surveillance cameras. The suspects were arrested. Shop staff told police they were ordered to run clients’ UnionPay cards twice, once through a skimmer-equipped keyboard and the other with EDC readers. If clients became suspicious, asking why the cards were run twice, employees would tell them that the card use repetition was necessary to give them a 32% discount. The stolen data was sent via the LINE chat app to accomplices in the US, along with the PINs recorded by the many surveillance cameras aimed at clients when they entered the codes. The data was used to forge cards in the US. According to Pol Col Krit, Mr Chao confessed to the crime. The Chinese man was quoted as saying he bought skimmer-equipped computer keyboards from China and the forged cards were used to buy luxury products and withdraw cash. Money raised from the crime was shared among gang members.