Kenya becoming base for LTTE credit card scams

An international gang of credit card fraudsters operating in Kenya is making some Sh40 million per year.

The gang works by stealing credit card, debit card and ATM card details. They then make forged cards which they use to buy items or to withdraw cash.

Already, some members of the syndicate have been arrested and convicted but many more are still at large.

A suspected operative of the Sri Lankan separatist terror group - Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) - Balakumar Poluthurai was arrested at 680 Hotel after he attempted to pay his bills using different fake credit cards. He is also believed to have withdrawn an unknown amount of cash using the cards. The holder of a Norwegian passport had 72 fake credit cards.

Last Monday, Bulgarian Nikolov Andrian Hriston was sentenced to three years in jail by Nairobi chief magistrate Gilbert Mutembei after he pleaded guilty to credit card fraud. The Bulgarian was arrested on July 11 as he was withdrawing money from a Pesapoint ATM at Nairobi's Lavington Green shopping centre using a variety of fake cards.

Others in the queue became suspicious when he made multiple cash withdrawals using different cards. They alerted security guards who called the police.

The suspect was found with 13 fake cards. Four accomplices in two cars escaped when police arrived.

At the time of his arrest, Hriston had over Sh700,000 in his pockets, and it as later found that he had made many cash withdrawals at different ATMs in the city.

On July 8 this year, Delhi police busted a credit fraud syndicate and arrested three Nigerians who were using cloned cards to buy expensive mobile phones. The Delhi Police recovered mobile phones with instructions and PIN numbers from Kenya.

These incidents are just a fraction of credit and ATM card fraud cases perpetrated by an increasing number of organised international and local syndicates. So serious is the problem that the United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON) regularly posts advisories to visiting staff to be careful whenever they use credit cards in Kenya.

Cases abound of ATM card holders who find thousands of shillings withdrawn from their accounts at night in places they have never been to. And more often than not, the victims stop following up on their money due to lengthy investigation processes.

And, according to the head of the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit, The fraudulent transactions are usually conducted between 10pm and midnight in lonely booths when there is least supervision and less chances of the bank contacting the genuine card holder to verify the transactions.

The Nation, Kenya