11 Charged in Minnesota Cloned Card Scheme

Nearly a Dozen Charged in Counterfeit Credit Card Scheme in Minnesota



KSTP TV - Minneapolis, Minnesota



Prosecutors have charged eleven people in an elaborate, counterfeit credit card scheme. Eight of them are in custody. Federal investigators are still looking for the other three defendants.



According to the criminal complaint, between July 2008 and April 2009 the group is accused of purchasing the personal information of Capitol One Bank customers from an online source in the Ukraine, who illegally profited from the sale.

It says the group then used the information to create counterfeit credit card accounts, withdrawing more than $652,205.49 from more than 170 ATMs throughout the Twin Cities.

Investigators says in some instances, the stolen money was converted into cashier checks and used to purchase vehicle parts or vehicles with salvaged titles. Those vehicles were then shipped to Nigeria, where un-named co-conspirators sold them at an inflated price.



Investigators say the defendants recruited Nigerian residents living in Minneapolis to buy pre-determined cars at auto auctions. They were given money to buy the cars and allowed to keep whatever was left over.  They are also accused of getting some of the same people to create bank accounts so they could deposit high-dollar fraudulent checks and then withdraw the cash the following day.



The defendants are each charged with one count of bank fraud and one count of access device fraud.  If convicted, the defendants face up to 30 years in prison on the bank fraud count and 10 years on each access device fraud count.



In related news, Finextra is reporting that European security agency Enisa is calling on banks and law enforcement agencies in EU member states to raise awareness of cash machine safety issues following an alarming 149% rise in ATM attacks in 2008.



More on this story: http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=20448

Nigeria's InterSwiitch Selects Gemalto

Nigeria’s InterSwitch Selects Gemalto’s Complete Strong Authentication Solution to Secure their e-Payment Services

Scalable solution offers security and convenience to all banking customers

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, September 7, 2009 – Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, today announced that InterSwitch is deploying its complete Ezio strong authentication solution to secure their e-payment services in Nigeria. InterSwitch is a leading provider of secure electronic payment solutions in Nigeria and comprises 25 member banks. Gemalto supplied its Ezio Strong Authentication Server and acted as server integration partner. The company also delivers EMV card readers and unconnected tokens, all customized with InterSwitch’s visual corporate identity. With Gemalto’s scalable solution, InterSwitch enables banking customers to perform secure e-transactions either using their EMV card and reader or a token.

Ezio enables InterSwitch member banks to enhance security for e-commerce by replacing static passwords with strong authentication. Users can pay their bills and taxes or buy airline tickets in a more secure and convenient manner, by authenticating themselves with a One-Time-Password using the device. They can also access online banking services, such as fund transfer, with increased security.

“We launched our EMV migration program with Gemalto and the company has proven a reliable partner,” commented Mitchell Elegbe, Managing Director, InterSwitch. “This success contributed to creating a strong business relationship and this is why we selected Gemalto for our strong authentication program”.

“Gemalto is proud to supply InterSwitch with an easy-to-use, end-to-end solution that enables users to buy and sell over the Internet, confident that their personal details are private and protected,” added Jacques Seneca, executive vice president of the Security Business Unit for Gemalto. “With our scalable solution, users get the device that is perfectly tailored to their needs.”

About Gemalto

Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO) is the world leader in digital security with 2008 annual revenues of €1.68 billion, and 10,000 employees operating out of 75 offices, research and service centers in 40 countries.

Gemalto is at the heart of our evolving digital society. The freedom to communicate, travel, shop, bank, entertain, and work—anytime, anywhere—has become an integral part of what people want and expect, in ways that are convenient, enjoyable and secure.

Gemalto delivers on the growing demands of billions of people worldwide for mobile connectivity, identity and data protection, credit card safety, health and transportation services, e-government and national security. We do this by supplying to governments, wireless operators, banks and enterprises a wide range of secure personal devices, such as subscriber identification modules (SIM) in mobile phones, smart banking cards, smart card access badges, electronic passports, and USB tokens for online identity protection. To complete the solution we also provide software, systems and services to help our customers achieve their goals.

As the use of Gemalto’s software and secure devices increases with the number of people interacting in the digital and wireless world, the company is poised to thrive over the coming years.

For more information please visit www.gemalto.com.