Five Bulgarians arrested for international payment card fraud

Polish National Police, working with the State Agency for National Security in Bulgaria and supported by Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), have smashed an international group of payment card fraudsters.  Five Bulgarian citizens responsible for misusing financial data from several countries, counterfeiting payment cards and making illegal electronic transactions, were arrested in Poland.

Complete equipment to produce counterfeit bank cards was seized and included mag-stripe readers and writers, computers, phones and flash drives.  Police officers also confiscated dozens of forged payment cards with records of PIN numbers, ready to be used at other ATMs, and a vehicle worth over  25,000 euros.

During the investigation, EC3 supported the case by providing tailored intelligence analysis and expertise to the investigators.  It was identified that the compromised data came mainly from the United Kingdom.  The investigation is still on-going and further arrests in the case are expected as suspects were working with gang members from Eastern Europe.

For more information read the related Press Release on the Europol website. A video of the equipment seized can be seen on the website of the Polish Police.