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Bulgarian Tourist Arrested in Morocco for Alleged ATM Fraud Scheme
Wednesday 24 July 2019, by
The Judicial Police of Marrakech arrested a Bulgarian national on Tuesday, July 23, 2019. Suspicions of hacking bank accounts and using them to access the automated data processing systems of customers of Moroccan banks weigh on the accused.
The 32-year-old suspect entered Morocco as a tourist, reports the MAP. His modus operandi? According to a statement from the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN), the accused used special techniques to copy the banking data of users of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). He then transferred this data to blank bank cards that he used to make cash withdrawals through Moroccan ATMs.
The Judicial Police conducted research that proved fruitful. The Bulgarian was caught in the act of withdrawing a sum of money from a bank branch in the center of Marrakech. The police also searched the hotel where the accused was staying. The harvest was good: about ten blank magnetic bank cards, tools used in the operation of copying and hacking banking data from ATMs, computer equipment, as well as sums of money in national currency and foreign currency were seized.
For now, the accused has been placed in custody for the purposes of the investigation being conducted by the competent public prosecutor’s office.