Police have raided an alleged chip and pin factory in Birmingham

Police have raided an alleged chip and pin factory in Birmingham. They found stolen chip and pin terminals, card account numbers, card readers, computer software and counterfeit magnetic stripe cards. All these stolen items can be used to clone shoppers’ cards through the doctored chip and pin terminals.The Police believe the fraudsters were hiding devices inside check out card readers to unscramble codes and reveal the pin numbers of customers.The technology found could infiltrate normal retail chip and pin units and make cards which can be used in countries that don’t use chip and pin devices.Police officers said 30 check outs in the UK had been affected by the new type of fraud.Petrol stations are the most likely to be targeted by the fraudsters. A large number of skimming frauds took place last year, around 200 petrol stations were thought to have been targeted by criminals.
Head of the Dedicated Chip and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU), the specialist police force for card fraud in the UK, Detective Inspector John Folan said the arrests in Birmingham were a “significant development”.He said “We are sending a very clear warning to fraudsters that these crimes will not be tolerated, and that we will continue to target them and disrupt their fraudulent activity”.
He added “These arrests are a significant development in our fight against the organised criminal gangs responsible for this type of fraud.”A spokeswoman from the UK payments association Apacs said that it was difficult to spot outward signs that a chip and pin terminal was not legitimate and said that although customers should be vigilant they are not responsible for detecting fraudulent terminals.
“Anyone who is an innocent victim of fraud will be refunded,” she said.
Jane Milne, of the British Retail Consortium, said “Customers should be assured that UK retailers always take the protection of cardholder data seriously and are continuing to invest millions of pounds to enhance existing security measures.”
Fraudulent usage of cards abroad has increased by 77% in the past year and has cost £207.6m, according to the DCPCU.