Man arrested for allegedly making cloned payment cards, using them to withdraw money from ATMs

A 27-year-old man has been arrested for suspected possession of cloned payment cards and equipment for making cloned cards.

The police said in a statement that they received a report on Feb 7 that a cloned metal card had been used to make a withdrawal at an Automated Teller Machine (ATM).

Through follow-up investigations, officers established the identity of the man and arrested him on Feb 16.

He is believed to have copied the payment card details from the magnetic stripes of more than 60 original payment cards and later encoded them into blank metal cards which he had bought online.

Besides copying the payment card details from the magnetic stripes, the man is believed to have removed and transferred the Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV) chips to the blank metal cards.

A laptop, two notebooks, an assortment of blank metal cards, an engraving machine, a card encoder, a Point-Of-Sale (POS) reader machine and some cloned metal payment cards were seized as case exhibits.

Police investigations are ongoing.

A person found guilty of possessing machines and equipment which, to their knowledge, has been specifically designed or adapted for the making of any false instrument can be jailed for up to five years, fined, or both.

Those found guilty of possessing a forged valuable security could face up to 15 years' jail and a fine.

"The police take a serious view of any person who may be involved in the production and possession of cloned payment cards, and perpetrators will be dealt with in accordance with the law," the police said.