Credit card 'skimming' costing banks millions
Source: ABC.NET.AU
Date: July 18, 2003
The Australian Crime Commission (ACC) says organised crime syndicates involved in credit card "skimming" have cost the banking industry hundreds of millions of dollars in the past year.
Officials from the new national intelligence agency have been making a submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry into cyber crime.
In the ACC's submission, losses from credit card skimming in Australia have been put at $300 million a year.
The commission's boss Alastair Milroy says it is a growing trend.
"We have noticed that there are people who in the past have been involved in traditional areas of criminality and have been smart enough to move with the times and embrace e-crime areas."
Credit card skimming involves using devices to copy data from legitimate cards onto counterfeit ones which are then sold or used to purchase items.
The ACC says the scam migrated from South-East Asia to Australia and the crime is expected to dramatically increase in the next two years.
Original article: http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/weekly/newsnat-18jul2003-64.htm
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