A total of nine suspected members of two credit card data scam gangs including a student, a civil servant and three staff members of a trading firm were arrested in Macau earlier this month, involving more than 840 credit cards and over 12 million patacas, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a special press conference yesterday.
In response to numerous cases of theft of credit card data that had been reported since last year, the Judiciary Police exchanged intelligence with their Hong Kong counterparts and carried out a joint investigation called Operation Soaring Star 2020. As a result of the two previous operations, 37 and 16 suspected organised crime members were arrested in Hong Kong and Macau in October last year and May this year respectively, according to Ho.
Ho said the Judiciary Police and the Hong Kong police again carried out a joint operation this month, called “Soaring Star” again, which was the third operation to combat the fraudulent use of credit card information. The two police forces arrested this time a total of 16 suspects between December 1 and yesterday. Among them, eight men and a woman were arrested in Macau, while five men and two women were arrested in Hong Kong.
Ho underlined that the Judiciary Police discovered for the first time that scammers had used smartphones to link up stolen credit card data, and then just scanned their smartphones to purchase smartphones or electronic products and sell them for a profit.
According to Ho, the Judiciary Police arrested separately four local men, including a suspected key member of the gang, aged between 25 and 34 at their homes and work places near the Barrier Gate checkpoint on Tuesday. Three of them admitted to having been paid between 12,000 patacas and 18,000 patacas by the key gang member who admitted that he was in charge of paying as well as providing the stolen credit card data to the trio, telling them to buy the products in electronic goods shops in the northern district and Cotai. The trio were told to purchase more than 3,000 smartphones in a short period of time in September this year, and used smartphones to scan payment apps linked to stolen overseas credit cards data, according to Ho.
The case involved the data of 840 credit cards with over 900 transactions amounting to more than 12 million patacas, Ho said. The respective credit card centres reported a loss of 5.7 million patacas while the status of the remaining 6.7 million patacas has yet to be confirmed, according to Ho.
Ho said that the smartphones bought by the trio on behalf of the gang were taken to Hong Kong and the mainland for resale.
The quartet were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing fraud charges, according to Ho.
Ho said that five other suspects involved in another credit card criminal gang were caught separately in December. The suspects admitted to soliciting part-time jobs online and lent their AppleIDs to link with stolen credit card data provided by the gang. They used stolen card data to buy a large amount of game tokens via their gaming accounts, claiming that they got 10 patacas per transaction. The Judiciary Police discovered that the data of at least six local credit cards were stolen, involving transactions worth 42,600 patacas.
The case has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP). The suspects face computer fraud charges, according to Ho.
Ho added that the Hong Kong police arrested yesterday seven people (five men and two women) aged between 21 and 71 during the operation, involving seven credit cards and transactions worth more than HK$100,000.
The Judiciary Police urged the public to protect their personal and credit card data and not to lend their online accounts to others. Anyone suspecting to have fallen victim to credit card fraud is urged to call the PJ hotline 993.
Evidence seized from the suspects such as nine smartphones and cash is displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday. Photo: Camy Tam
The four hooded fraud suspects are escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle in Zape yesterday. Photo: Camy Tam
