Seven held in credit card scam

GUARDIA Civil officers have broken up a gang which specialised in shopping with counterfeit credit cards, and arrested seven people.
The gang is alleged to have got away with more than 800'000 euros last year.
A spokesman for the Guardia Civil said yesterday that the operation was still open and they were not ruling out further arrests.
The operation had international repercussions.
Investigations started in Palma, following a complaint filed by representatives of an airline who had detected the Internet purchase of a large number of tickets, using credit card numbers from various countries. All the operations were found to be fraudulent. Following an investigation which lasted for more than two months, the officers discovered a group in Mostoles (Madrid) who received information of a number of Visa and Mastercard credit cards from diverse countries (number of the card, magnetic strips and pin numbers) sent by other alleged members of the gang from Nigeria and South Africa. It is alleged that the services of the gang were requested by residents in the Balearics, Malaga, Tenerife and Valencia, commissioning flights. All the tickets were first class, and “customers” paid considerablly less than the face value. The gang also had computer equipment for duplicating credit cards which were used in Palma and Madrid to purchase goods valued at 375'000 euros between October and December.