Police have busted a cash card fraud network reported to have stolen more than Rf700,000 (US$45,000) in expensive luxury items through the use of forged cards.
Police have arrested and identified five Maldivians in the network as Abdul Gany Abdul Majeed, 30, Thoriq Jameel, 30, Abdulla Akram, 22, Nadheem Masoodh 32, Ali Ahmed 28.
Speaking to the press today at police headquarters, Inspector Mohamed Riyaz said that Abdul Gany and Thoriq were arrested inside a casino in Sri Lanka in a joint operation conducted with the Lankan Police.
The two arrested in Sri Lanka had VIP cards for the casino they were arrested inside, noted Riyaz, adding that Gany was arrested in possession of Rf 4845, Sri Lankan Rupees 250,090 and US$5128, while Thoriq was arrested with 31,580 Srilankan Rupees and US$500 in his pockets.
Riyaz said Ali Ahmed was arrested at Male’ International Airport when he arrived in the Maldives from India on September 20.
He added that some of the credit and debit cards they had forged were made to resemble membership cards for certain venues and were hard to identify with a cursory glance.
Thorig, a shareholder of a famous movie shop ‘Club Infinity’, had membership cards of the shop which was actually a debit and credit card, Riyaz told the press.
Riyaz said some of the cards were made in the name of customers of banks in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, China and France – cards that appeared in the form of Maldivian cash cards but had the data of foreign banks’ customers encoded to them.
Police confiscated the electronic machines used to conduct the fraud, which the police said had the ability to obtain all information of any magnetic card and edit the information.
Police believe they might have used the cards and bought products from other countries as well, and said that they may have connection to a foreign network.
Police have been investigating the fraud network for six months, Riyaz noted.
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Congratulations and well done police. We'll have to wait and see what the Judiciary does.
perfect.
welcome to anni dhivehi raajje
These guys could have played it real safe and do it for the rest of their lives.
They bit off too much.
Sri Lankan casinos are full of Maldivians... that's what happens when you oppress your people...
Wow. Not to support criminals but I am glad to see that there are a couple youths with the brains to pull this off in our country.
No surprise that the intelligent youth are turning to crime. Why not? They have no other path to advancement. Their politicians, their civil service directors and their City councilors are the same or even worse.
We have people cheating their party membership of the right to elect party leaders and no one can say anything about it. We have a President actively devising climate change strategies, investment plans and development blueprints for the sole purpose of enriching his family and friends. We have religious leaders feeding us watered down sermons for their own political gain.
So a couple of kids went out and got some. I would be lying if I said I feel empathy for those who lost their hard-earned money through this scam. I will be the first to admit that this country and its institutions have exorcised the emotion from me altogether.
Good luck with your plan to sell off the assets of this country to your friends and family abroad Anni. Good luck with your plans to get back into politics Dr. Mustafa Lutfi - never mind that University you were assigned, the place is a dump full of Maldivians anyway, why care about them right?
Dokdo, freaking simpleton
That's what happens when western culture is integrated into the Maldivian life-style!
Gambling away their ill gotten money and living the so called 'life'
In other words, "embodiment of democracy in it's very essence".
Hail hitler!
congratulations to the Maldives Police Service on the job well done
If some Maldivian are idiotic enough to give their debit cards and the PIN numbers to strangers it is a small wonder that this has not happened on a larger scale.
I was shocked to see a lot of Maldivians give their debit cards and their PIN numbers to waiters in Cafe's and restaurants while the waiters go and do the payments out of site of the customers. No one with any sense would do such an idiotic thing.
too bad they got caught..
Also feel bad that it was just 700 thou!! and that too for 5 pple!..700 thou wud b eenuf for my expense only! lol.
Any ideas on the model of the machine? spex? bad journalism....shud have been mentioned. Sorry pple. m a hungry guy.
Judiciary will release them saying no kaafee heki, my dear
Zionist - Apparently the "Maldivian lifestyle" includes traveling to Sri Lanka and sleeping with prostitutes and gambling... just sayin'