In an audacious heist involving thousands of coordinated withdrawals,
100 thieves in Japan made away with $13m in just under three hours and
what’s more, none of them have been apprehended.
Police believe that as many as 100 people worked together using forged
credit cards containing account details illegally obtained from a bank
in South Africa.The
attack which took place on the morning of May 15th appears to have been
the brainchild of a criminal mastermind.The fake cards were used in 1400
ATM’s and each person made a withdrawal 100,000 yen – the maximum
allowed by the cash machines, they were able to cart away more than
1.4bn yen (US$12.7m)
Japanese police have requested the assistance of the authorities in
South Africa, via Interpol in establishing how the credit card
information was obtained.Transaction data retrieved from the cash
machines suggests that the criminals used information for 1,600 credit
cards issued by the unnamed South African bank.
According to local media, the daring operation went into place early on
Sunday the 15th, the withdrawals began just after 5am with the last one
made just before 8am the same day.
Reports suggest that members of the gang may no longer be in Japan.
They made sure to buy themselves enough time by using cards issued in
another country and carrying out the theft on a day when banks won’t be
open, by the time the crime was discovered, they already had a good
headstart.
Source: The Guardian UK
