Police arrest Indian tourist over '$1m credit card skimming fraud' in Thailand

Police arrest Indian tourist over '$1m credit card skimming fraud' in Thailand

Police raided the hotel room of a Indian man on Monday (June 29) for allegedly skimming credit cards in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.

Muhammad Asik Budinezaraoter, 39, was found alone in the room with several electronic devices inside.

Officers confiscated one laptop, mobile phones and a card copy machine that they believed were being used by the alleged skimmer.

Police said they had identified a fraud gang that would transfer the hacked credit card information, usually from American and Canadian cards, into a plain credit card and use it to buy expensive goods.

Police Major General Prachuab Wongsuk said the arrest was made after they received information about a man offering suspicious deals to shop owners.

He said: "The alleged offender would go to jewellery shops in town and offer to buy their goods without taking it while giving them a cut of its price.

"We started the investigation and believe it might be the skimmer so we approached this man and arrested him before he admitted the crime." The revenue received from the scam would be shared among the shops, the gang, and the skimmer himself, according to police.

Police found that the amount stolen in the province is at least 500,000 THB (160,000USD) and could be more 30million THB (966,000USD) across the country.

He added: "Initially, we found out that the man had already bought 500,000 THB (160,000USD) worth of goods here.

"But the gang has also sent him to other provinces so we believe that the total damage could reach more than 30million THB (966,000USD)." The police initially charged the man with possessing and using counterfeit credit cards and will continue the investigation to press charges against the shop owners in association with the crime.