A Dubai police chief has urged banks in the UAE to constantly monitor ATM activity after a gang of four men were arrested - accused of a $60 million fraud operation involving stolen credit card information.

It is alleged they stole the information from nearly 17,000 credit cards and used it in online transactions and to withdraw money from the accounts of the owners, police said on Monday.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) received an initial tip-off in July and after monitoring and collecting evidence, the teams raided the gang’s den and arrested them, UAE daily Gulf News reported on Tuesday.

Two people were arrested, who then guided the police to the third suspect, who had been detained at one of the police stations for another case.

Police also identified a fourth suspect who was outside the country, but police have made the necessary arrangements to extradite him. It did not name the country.

Police said the spree was partly responsible for banks sending text messages to tens of thousands of customers in September, warning them to change their personal identification numbers (PINs) on debit and ATM cards.

Colonel Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, deputy director of CID, told the paper the suspects were able to steal information from 16,975 credit cards.

He called on banking institutions to constantly monitor ATMs and inform security bodies about any suspicious devices that are installed on or near the machines.

He also called on the public to safeguard information of their credit cards and not reveal them to anyone and to take precautions when using the cards.

Source Courtesy: arabianbusiness.com; Articles by Andy Sambidge on Tuesday, 16 December 2008