News agencies have reported that four Russian citizens have been arrested by authorities in Moscow on the suspicion of being responsible for stealing half a billion dollars from ATM machines in the Russian capital.
According to reports, the $500 million fraud used cloned cards containing the bank details of a multitude of US account holders.
The arrested men are suspected to have used the cloned cards to make the collective multi-million dollar withdrawals at ATMs without leaving Russia.
Furthermore, because of the nature of the fraud, Russian police believe the arrested men had accomplices in the US, probably working at the affected banks. Inside aids would have the capability to provide the Russian fraudsters with account and PIN numbers, providing all that was required to make the cloned cards.
The Russian police said they also found evidence of information from French and Canadian accounts in related investigations.
The development follows revelations of card cloning frauds in New Zealand and the UK. In New Zealand a tampered with ATM skimmed users’ details, while in the UK fraudulently altered Chip & PIN machines on Shell forecourts were used to steal account details.