They cloned 1,700 bank cards and made 3,800 fraudulent transactions amounting to a €1.1 million shopping spree. But the big spending is finally over. A police operation, dubbed “Presente Americano”, has rounded up most, if not all, of the perpetrators.
Reporting on the ensuing court case in Loures, Correio da Manhã reveals how the group of fraudsters based themselves in Lisbon and used a skimmer as part of their elaborate plot.
A skimmer is essentially an ingenious machine that steals bank card details. It can be slipped on and off bona-fide terminals so card users are none the wiser.
Also involved was fake currency, falsified passports and all sorts of other technological wizardry.
The police investigation that began last summer involved more than 50 Polícia Judiciária inspectors and 10 house searches.
Four men and a woman, aged between 20 and 36, are currently facing sundry charges of bank card cloning and fraud while two others have already been jailed.
