15 Taiwanese arrested for credit card cloning in QC

MANILA, Philippines—Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested 15 Taiwanese nationals suspected of involvement in credit card cloning operations in simultaneous raids Wednesday evening on houses inside two posh subdivisions in Quezon City.

Members of the raiding team claimed the suspects seemed to have connections with people in the Bureau of Immigration and the Philippine National Police (PNP) based on a list of telephone numbers recovered among the equipment seized during the operation.

Teams from the NBI Technical Investigation Division (TID) rounded up at around 7 p.m., Wednesday, the suspects from 8 Moncado Street, BF Homes Subdivision in Quezon City, allegedly before they could flee.  Taiwanese tenants of 13 Crane Street, Filinvest II Subdivision, Quezon City were, however, able to escape before the bureau agents arrived.

NBI-TID chief Palmer Mallari did not disclose the names of the 15 Taiwanese suspects pending the verification of their claims that they were just “visitors” at the house in BF Homes Subdivision.

Mallari said that the raids stemmed from information relayed by an informant on the group’s illegal activities of identity theft and cloning of credit cards.

“They would hack into merchant’s websites … to steal credit card accounts, which are being used to purchase (goods) online, some of which are being reproduced into physical credit cards,” Mallari explained.

Another mode is the establishment of a bogus on-line shopping site, according to the NBI-TID chief.

“They have no intention of delivering the merchandise, precisely because there are no items to be delivered,” he explained.

A new method of stealing identities, Mallari revealed, was discovered among documents recovered from the group.  The suspects, he said, had been posing as policemen or prosecutors to obtain information from their compatriots.  “They would pretend they are prosecutors or policemen then they would arrange to fix the supposed case (filed against the victim) in  court and they would be demanding money and obtain account information,” he said, adding that the group even had a script for the con.

During the raid at the BF Homes Subdivision property, the NBI-TID chief observed that laptop computers, modems, routers, skimming devices, phones and blank credit cards were already packed inside several pieces of luggage. But the 15 Taiwanese occupants of the house were rounded up by NBI men before they could escape.

Mallari revealed that among the documents recovered was a list of phone numbers of persons connected with the immigration bureau and the police, seemingly an “emergency hotline” list.   “We will conduct further investigation on why they (suspects) have these numbers and determine their owners’ link with the group’s activities.”

At the Filinvest II Subdivision raid, the house was already cleaned out when NBI teams arrived. “We were informed by neighbors that the occupants of the house had hastily left four days before we got there,” Mallari said.

He pointed out that the group usually rented houses in posh subdivisions to provide a cover for their illicit operations and avoid detection.

The 15 arrested suspects are in the custody of the NBI and are facing a charge of violation of Republic Act 8484 or the Access Device Regulation Act of 1998.