32 months' jail for card fraudster
2002-4-16
A credit card fraud syndicate member was today (Tuesday) jailed for 32 months at District Court for his role in a false card scam involving the capturing of card data at the Jumbo Floating Restaurant (Jumbo) in Aberdeen, causing $425,700 losses to the car d issuing banks.
A former employee of Jumbo who corruptly helped capture customers' credit card data and a woman involved in the scam had also pleaded guilty earlier, and were each sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.
Tsang Chi-wah, 31, unemployed, today pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a desktop computer specially designed for making false credit cards on April 2, 2001.
The court ordered the second charge of conspiracy to possess a skimmer for manufacturing false cards against Tsang be left on court file.
Judge Day said the offence was serious and warranted a four-year starting point, but the defendant's guilty plea had already been considered in sentencing.
The case arose from a corruption report alleging that some employees of Jumbo might have accepted bribes for supplying customers' credit card data to a criminal syndicate.
Investigations revealed that in April 2000, a man provided a skimmer to a supervisor of Jumbo through a middle-woman, and asked him to help capture customers’ credit card data while handling their payments. The man agreed to pay the supervisor $500 for each set of data captured.
Between April and June 2000, the supervisor captured about 30 sets of card data at Jumbo with the skimmer. However, he lost contact with the man who supplied the device and received no payment.
In the course of investigating this case, ICAC officers searched the defendant's residence on April 2, 2001, and seized a desktop computer which stored six sets of genuine credit card data and signature panel images for manufacturing false credit cards.
Forensic examination by credit card companies confirmed that three out of the six sets of data were captured at Jumbo during the above period.
The prosecution was today represented by Malcolm Nunns on a fiat, assisted by ICAC officer Johnny Yau.
A former employee of Jumbo who corruptly helped capture customers' credit card data and a woman involved in the scam had also pleaded guilty earlier, and were each sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.
Tsang Chi-wah, 31, unemployed, today pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a desktop computer specially designed for making false credit cards on April 2, 2001.
The court ordered the second charge of conspiracy to possess a skimmer for manufacturing false cards against Tsang be left on court file.
Judge Day said the offence was serious and warranted a four-year starting point, but the defendant's guilty plea had already been considered in sentencing.
The case arose from a corruption report alleging that some employees of Jumbo might have accepted bribes for supplying customers' credit card data to a criminal syndicate.
Investigations revealed that in April 2000, a man provided a skimmer to a supervisor of Jumbo through a middle-woman, and asked him to help capture customers’ credit card data while handling their payments. The man agreed to pay the supervisor $500 for each set of data captured.
Between April and June 2000, the supervisor captured about 30 sets of card data at Jumbo with the skimmer. However, he lost contact with the man who supplied the device and received no payment.
In the course of investigating this case, ICAC officers searched the defendant's residence on April 2, 2001, and seized a desktop computer which stored six sets of genuine credit card data and signature panel images for manufacturing false credit cards.
Forensic examination by credit card companies confirmed that three out of the six sets of data were captured at Jumbo during the above period.
The prosecution was today represented by Malcolm Nunns on a fiat, assisted by ICAC officer Johnny Yau.