Gang in court for using fake credit cards

Thousands of Australians are falling victim to identity theft every year, it has been reported.In a Weekend Australia article, some 383,300 people were shown to have their identity stolen through credit card fraud on an annual basis, while a further 124,0

Six people have appeared in court charged in connection with a credit card fraud operation, it has been revealed.

Among those to have been arrested is Tony Hancock from the Strathfield area of Sydney who is facing 20 charges including conspiracy to cheat and dishonestly obtaining and dealing in personal financial information.

Four other men and a woman were also in court for their involvement in the syndicate which police claim has seen more than 1,200 fake credit cards produced and distributed to people to fraudulently purchase millions of dollars worth of goods - such as mobile phones and alcohol - many of which were then sent overseas.

"It will be alleged that the 'shoppers' were then directed as to what was to be purchased with the cards and received a percentage of the value of the items purchased with the fraudulent credit cards," the police claimed, in a statement issued prior to the alleged's court appearance.

Following a series of raids in Melbourne and Sydney, Kha Weng Foong, Yung Feng Yun, Quoc Du Hua, Henley Han and the unnamed woman were also arrested.

Those concerned about credit card security may be interested to hear that the Australian Federal Police recently warned about an email scam in operation where people have received messages from criminals attempting to gain credit card details and other pieces of personal information by pretending to be from the police force.

Written by Mark Hornby