Cyber Crime: Man arrested for credit card fraud

Nadra officials’ involvement suspected.

LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) National Response Centre for Cyber Crimes has arrested a man allegedly involved in making and using counterfeit credit cards by hacking card holders’ data. The investigators suspect involvement of some NADARA officials in the crime.

An FIA official told The Express Tribune that the accused, Tanveer Iqbal, obtained computerised national identity cards (CNICs) data possibly with help from some Nadra officials, to produce fake credit cards in his name and names of his accomplices. The official said that the criminals used CNICs that were returned to Nadra for correction of spellings, date of birth and address.

The gang members hacked credit cards using data on the CNICs and used them for larger transactions. He said the gang members had a digital device through which they transferred their data on blank credit cards.

The gang used magnetic strip read and writing (MSRW) machine to rewrite data on credit cards.

One of the affected, identified as Chaudhry Tahir Amin, whose CNIC was recovered from Iqbal, told the investigation officer that he had returned the ID card to a Nadra office in Gujranwala seeking correction in his date of birth. He said a few weeks later, he received the new card with the correct date of birth. Two more CNICs with the same number but bearing different pictures and names were recovered from the suspect.

The case was brought to FIA’s attention after Amin filed a complaint at United Bank Limited’s Fraud Risk Management Unit.

Iqbal was reportedly caught red handed by a police team headed by Inspector Malik Tariq Masood while using the fake card. They also recovered two counterfeit credit cards, a laptop and an MSRW machine from him.

According to an FIA report, the gang has so far used these fake cards at UBL point of sale machines at Metro Cash and Carry in Thokar Niaz Baig in Lahore.

The recovered credits cards, laptop and the MSRW machine has been handed over to the concerned forensic expert for providing technical report. However, the actual loss calculation report from UBL and the forensic report from a technical expert are awaited.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2011.