Alexandre Giro Zinno and Ali Ennouri have been
arrested for ATM fraud.
Boonlua Chatree
Four foreigners made reports to the police that they had
been swindled by foreigners who had stolen money from their bank accounts
through ATM machines. The total sum of the losses of these four complainants
was about 1 million baht.
Staff at the SCB bank exchange booth in Central Pattaya
reported to police that they saw two suspicious persons trying to withdraw
money from the ATM machine there.
Police came and searched the two suspicious figures and
found a card skimmer device, one ATM card and 100,000 baht in cash,
allegedly withdrawn illegally from a victim’s bank account.
Two Frenchmen were arrested for allegedly cloning
automated teller machine cards and robbing unsuspecting tourists of large
sums of money from their bank accounts.
Alexandre Giro Zinno, 29, and Ali Ennouri, 28, were taken
into custody at an ATM at the entrance to Soi 9 on Beach Road Feb. 15.
Zinno and Ennouri denied charges they’d copied card
numbers and personal identification card numbers to the skimmer, which could
then be inserted into an ATM to withdraw cash under the victim’s account.
They then refused to make any statement to police. Armed with security
camera footage from several ATMs, police charged the pair with possession of
counterfeiting tools before detaining them for further investigation.
Police urged the public to remember to refuse offers from
strangers asking to assist with making ATM withdrawals and to guard PINs and
other private data.
Police believe that there are at least 4-5 ATM scam gang
members, who queue up at ATM machines and pretend to be of assistance to the
person in front of them, but in fact are working their dirty tricks to copy
the victims’ ATM cards.
Police have identified the other gang members and have
reliable information that they are in Phuket. They have requested the
immigration police to look out for them in case they decide to escape from
the country before police are able to arrest them.
