British credit card frauds are increasing to fund LTTE terrorism
(By Walter Jayawardhana)
Conservative Party MP Andrew Selous
British credit card frauds in which numbers of such cards have been
skimmed, cloned and misused to steal money all over the world have
increased alarmingly as means to fund terrorism charged a United Kingdom
parliamentarian and Police.
Andrew Selous, a Conservative Party MP told the House of Commons
recently that "it has been suggested to me that some of the money may
have found its way to the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka" possibly to fund
terrorism. Mr. Selous said, "My wife had 1000 Pounds stolen in four or
five withdrawals from cash points in New York in early January (2008)"
While the British Member of Parliament said that withdrawals of money
from such cards have spread to many countries of the world the Toronto
Police in Canada confirming the point said that two Londoners who are
found to be members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with
two other Canadian accomplices have been arrested with thousands of
skimmed British credit card numbers after their arrival in Canada and
while travelling close to the Toronto International Air****t. The two
Londoners arrested during early February were Kirubakaran Selvanayagam
Pillai (38) and Sethukavalar Saravanabhavan (35).
The South West Bedford****re member of parliament of the United Kingdom,
Andrew Selous told the parliament that the United Kingdom being the most
chip and pin compliant country in credit card transactions in Europe and
possibly the whole world it has unfortunately not made the British
credit card customers safer than the same in foreign countries. A pin
number is a secret number only the customer knows to use with the card
when a transaction is made with a credit or debit card. Together with a
credit card number the con artists also skim the pin number at places
where a card is used.
"Britain has," he said "chip and pin -all credit to UK financial
services, we are the most chip and pin compliant country in Europe and
possibly the whole world. We are even better than Luxembourg, which is
the next best in Europe. However that does not mean that as UK citizens
we are any safer. Highly organized criminal gangs clone the details from
the magnetic strips on the back of our credit and debit cards and take
our pin numbers through the skimming machines and money is then
withdrawn all over the world."
The Conservative Party MP said from talking to his constituents and the
Police he has found that money is being withdrawn from Malaysia,
America, India, Hong Kong, Philippines, Dubai, Australia, Canada, Sri
Lanka, Singa****e, Germany and Thailand.
Mr. Selous also pointed out that the crime had been attempted in Ghana
but was not successful. "Let us pause for a moment and consider the
scale of that highly organized sophisticated criminal operation," he
contemplated. Bringing this to the notice of the Under Secretary of
State for the Home Department, Meg Hillier the Conservative Party MP
requested him to review the current Police investigations procedures,
which he said were "clearly failing."
The parliamentarian said at the end of November or in early December at
a garage in his constituency a skimming machine had been inserted in the
debit and credit card machine and according to the Bradford****re police
745 debit and credit cards have had money stolen on multiple occasions.
The MP said he was talking about amounts ranging from 1000 to 5000
Pounds from five to twelve occasions. He said his wife who was a victim
was luckier since she had realized the fraud after she checked her bank
account after about 1000 Pounds were stolen in four or five withdrawals.
"On many occasions I have told Bedford****re Police that if 745 purses
and wallets had been stolen there would probably have been police
officers behind almost every hedge trying to catch the culprits. Card
crime is no less serious .We are talking about lot more money than most
people have in their purse or wallet. The fact that the money is always
almost reimbursed by the financial institutions does not make the theft
any less traumatic, difficult and upsetting for the person any less of a
crime," Mr. Andrew Selous said. He said one of his constituents wrote to
him and said, "No law abiding citizen can witness the large scale theft
of money from the UK without indignation."
He quoted another as saying, "They cleared our account down to 5 Pounds.
We have two kids to feed as well. We were worried about how we would
survive for three weeks until my husband got paid again." Pointing out
the weaknesses in British law Mr. Selous said, people finding out their
money being stolen cannot go to the police unless their card has been
stolen but on many occasions the card has not been stolen but skimmed
and cloned. So, the MP said the victims only could go to their financial
institutions to complain and those institutions would eventually inform
the police. But after 745 cards have been cloned the Police did not have
even one referral from such institutes like a bank. While this was going
on , the parliamentarian said the police could not walk into the garage
which was skimming the cards for cloning even though everybody knew
where it was happening. But when the police raided the garage it was a
"classic case of locking the stable door after the horse had bolted,"
the MP said. He was lamenting the law was not efficient to raid the
garage after few clones have been suspected there.
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For genuine Situation Re****t visit:
http://www.nationalsecurity.lk
http://www.defence.lk/
http://www.army.lk/index1.php
http://www.nmatnet.com/
http://www.sinhalaya.info/index-EN.php
Worth to look following to see how brutal Tamil Tiger Terrorists are
Child Soldiers of LTTE Tamil Tiger Terrorists in Sri Lanka
http://www.spur.asn.au/childwar.htm
Ethnic Cleansing in Sri Lanka
http://www.spur.asn.au/ethnic_cleansing_in_sri_lanka.htm
LTTE TAMIL TIGER ATROCITIES
http://www.spur.asn.au/ltteatrp.htm
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