Criminal gangs use forged magnetic cards to steal money from banks and posts

Algiers (4/12/2012) – Security services specialized in combating economic crime are investigating in the trade of forged magnetic cards.

An unknown group of traffickers are trading in the forged magnetic cards which are used in various vending machines. These gangs steal pin numbers from the owners of these magnetic cards then steal citizens’ assets.

The investigation, which was launched by security services as provided by Echorouk sources, was based on information about the trading of forged magnetic cards in Algiers, exactly in Bash Djerrah, central Algiers, Kouba, and Bir Mourad Rais, and extends to other neighboring localities such as Boumerdes, Tipaza and Blida, where a group of people implicated in forging gray cards (for cars), according to information available to security services that are currently investigating in the circumstance of the crime, which threatens citizens’ accounts.

In this context, the Minister of Post, Information and Communication Technologies, Moussa Ben Hammadi, told Echorouk that forging magnetic cards is possible, but using them to get citizens’ money from the vending machines is impossible, but if these gangs get the secret numbers and codes or passwords from the owners of these cards it is obvious that they can use them to steal people’s accounts.

Ben Hammadi added that the vending machines are equipped with a special system which can book the cards automatically in case they register an error in the PIN code three times, and to get those cards back by the owner needs limited conditions, as a precautionary measure to protect the real owners.

The same spokesman called upon owners of the magnetic cards to the need to keep cautious when they use their secret numbers and be careful of theft by criminal gangs which use them in stealing citizens’ money.