Cops bust tollbooth card scam

 Bank card skimming syndicates are now targeting tollbooths and, with the festive season approaching, authorities are warning motorists to pay cash rather than hand over credit cards at tollroads.

Last week Mariannhill plaza toll collector Xolani Innocent Biyela was arrested by police from Durban’s commercial crime unit.

He has appeared in court on charges of skimming at least 150 cards over the past three months.

Police said Biyela was part of a bigger syndicate which also operated at a bookshop at Durban’s new King Shaka Airport. So far, their crimes have cost banks and their customers more than R3-million, excluding any crimes committed with cards skimmed from overseas tourists.

Three others have been arrested with Biyela.

More arrests are expected.

The breakthrough came as a result of heightened public awareness through training given by police and the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) before the World Cup, when credit card skimming was identified as a priority crime.

A cashier at Exclusive Books at King Shaka Airport, Hlabisile Mashabane, was arrested at work on July 7, the day of the World Cup semi-final between Germany and Spain in Durban.

This followed investigations by the banks which showed that the shop was a “common point of compromise” for cards suspected to have been cloned.

She was confronted by the shop management and allegedly found in possession of a skimming device.

According to evidence given in court by investigating officer Capt Louis Helberg, during Mashabane’s bail application, further investigations led the police to a house in Verulam, the home of another Exclusive Books employee, Zamadladla Dladla, and her Nigerian partner, Paul Unegbu.

They were also arrested.

Helberg alleged the house was a “card cloning factory”.

Apart from another skimming device - used to capture the information on the magnetic strips of bank cards - police found two compact discs containing the software needed to transfer the information from the skimming device to the computer.

Police found a laptop and a card reader and writer which was used to transfer information from the computer on to any plastic card containing a magnetic strip.

He claimed that 38 plastic cloned cards were also seized.

Helberg said three driver’s licences, two Nigerian and one British, were found in the house, all bearing Unegbu’s photograph but with different names.

He alleged that some of the “cloned cards” in the house were also in Unegbu’s name and that he was in possession of a statement from an employee of an Umhlanga Ridge hotel confirming that Unegbu had used one of the cards there.

An analysis of the laptop revealed 102 data files containing information of 482 cloned cards.

The point of compromise for more than 150 of these was the Mariannhill toll plaza, which led police to Biyela.

Unegbu - who was denied bail - Dladla and Mashabane are facing seven counts relating to possession of skimming equipment, 482 counts relating to the information on the laptop and 38 counts relating to the actual cloned cards.

The charges against Biyela relate to the estimated 150 cards which were allegedly skimmed at the tollbooth.

Biyela is also in custody and will appear in court again this week.

The others will be in court again next year.

Sabric CEO Kalyani Pillay praised the police for the arrests.

“Clients are urged to be vigilant at all times,” she said.