*****************************
Two men, aged 23 and 32, were jailed for 24 months at the District Court today (December 17) for conspiracy to steal.
The court heard that on July 5, 2009, patrolling officers spotted two men using counterfeit Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) cards to withdraw money from ATMs of various banks along Hennessy Road, Wanchai. The men were then arrested and a total of 35 counterfeit ATM cards and four pieces of papers containing Personal Identity Number (PIN) were seized from them.
Investigations by officers of the Commercial Crime Bureau revealed that the magnetic stripes of these counterfeit ATM cards contained account information of some banks in Europe. Those banks later confirmed that about 87,000 had been fraudulently withdrawn from their clientsˇ¦ accounts through these counterfeit ATM cards.
The two men were charged with conspiracy to steal. They were convicted of the charges and sentences were handed down today.
Police appeal to members of the public that their bankcards and PINs should be kept in a safe and separated place. They should not disclose their PINs to any person under any circumstances. When withdrawing cash from ATMs, they should stay alert and prevent others from peeping their PINs.
Police Report No. 7
Ends/Thursday, December 17, 2009
Issued at HKT 22:25
NNNN
