Massive card fraud depletes 300 Irish bank accounts
About €1m has been stolen from 300 Irish bank accounts in one of the country’s biggest card frauds
About €1m (?800,000) has been stolen from 300 Irish bank accounts in one of
the biggest cases of bank card fraud ever in the country.
Bank cards were reportedly cloned at points of sale in shops and restaurants
around Dublin over the past few weeks as the criminals paid shop and restaurant
workers up to €10,000 to skim laser cards to find their PINs in a practice
called ‘shoulder surfing’ – by looking over their shoulder.
The criminals withdrew cash from the unsuspecting victims across mainland
Europe, including Italy, Romania and Spain. The biggest single amount stolen
from one account was €7000 to €8000.
Most of the withdrawals were made at the end of April and in early May. Many
customers contacted their bank themselves to notify about the irregularities
because the banks’ fraud detection systems failed to pick up the illegal
activity.
Further reading:
Chief inspector IDs auditors for fraud
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the Irish Independent story