Image: Beware Skimmers. Credit: www.bankinfosecurity.com.
Bali Police have caught another Bulgarian man skimming ATM machines, this time in Gianyar. They arrested Tsvetanov Radoslav Ivanov, 45, at Pengosekan Gas Station ATM, Gianyar, last Tuesday, August 14, 2018, at around 2.30am.
Commissioner Ruddi Setiawan from the Bali Polda Criminal Investigation Unit, said to balipost.com yesterday that the case was solved after a joint police team investigated the case. They then staked out a certain ATM in Gianyar until the suspect arrived and arrested him in the act of skimming the machine.
“The suspect concentrated on isolated and unguarded ATMs around the island,” AKBP Ruddi told reporters. Police found much evidence on the scene and in the man’s house.
“We are still coordinating with related banks to calculate the sum of the loss and the victim’s bank account numbers. Most of the victims appear to live abroad and the investigation is still ongoing,” said the police officer.
Commissioner Ruddi said that the modus was similar with other skimming cases. The suspect copies the ATM card data on the black magnetic strips onto fake cards. “The suspect was using fake ATM cards he obtained in Malaysia,” Ruddi said to beritabali.com. He moves the data of the ATM card via the skimmer. “The skimmer is installed on the machine and a mini camera is installed on the number canopy to record the victim’s PIN number,” he continued.
When the suspect was interrogated, he admitted that he already installed skimmers on many ATMs in the Gianyar area. He installed and removed the skimmers on weekends, as banks close their operations on Saturdays and Sundays.
“He also admitted that he carried out the crime with a Bulgarian friend, whom we are still pursuing,” he concluded.