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Three French males, aged between 29 and 37, were each sentenced to 25 months¡¦ imprisonment for conspiracy to steal at District Court today (November 8).
The Court heard that Police Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB) had received intelligence that someone would come to Hong Kong and use fake cards being encoded with credit cards data stolen from overseas to withdraw cash from Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs).
Upon investigations, CCB officers arrested two defendants, aged 29 and 37, outside an ATM centre on Lockhart Road in Wan Chai and another 30-year-old man at MTR Central Station on May 10, 2012. A total of 43 fake cards were seized in their possessions, their luggage and a hotel room in Wan Chai. About HK$125,000 was drawn by them during their stay in Hong Kong between May 8 and 10.
The trio were subsequently charged with conspiracy to steal and the sentences were handed down today.
Police will continue to maintain a close partnership with the banking industry and overseas law enforcement agencies to combat crimes involving credit cards.
Police appeal to the public to properly protect their credit data with the following advice:
1. Stay vigilant and put your credit card in a safe place;
2. Don't give your card to others unless you have to pay with it;
3. Don't put your card and its password together, and don't use your date of birth, telephone numbers or Identity Card number as passwords as they can be easily identified; and
4. Destroy bank letters containing credit card data and customer copies of credit card payment before disposal.
Police Report No. 273
Ends/Thursday, November 8, 2012
Issued at HKT 20:54
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