A Moldovan man alleged to be the mastermind behind an international fraud ring that targeted both private and corporate bank accounts has been arrested in Limerick, Ireland, in a joint operation by Gardai and customs officials.
According to a report in the Irish Independent, this operation was based out of the man’s suburban, Limerick home over a period of two years. Authorities raided his house Friday evening, February 25, and recovered evidence including personal and business bank account details, ATM skimming machines, presses for manufacturing bank and credit cards, components for recording electronic data, and pinhole cameras with covers attached to be fitted over ATMs.
Authorities seized a number of blank credit and banking cards in addition to those that had been pressed with names, some of which are of Irish origin, as well as some $10,000 in cash.
Gardai officials are examining the names pressed onto the fraudulent cards in hopes of establishing a reasonable means by which the identities were stolen.
