Cotswolds Garage Investigation is Continuing

A few months ago a petrol station was found to be part of a fraud scheme.  Last week another garage and petrol station scam in Cotswolds was found to be the source of a number of credit card frauds.  Several of the town’s motorists that stopped in to get gas or maintenance on their car reported later that their debit or credit cards had been used fraudulently.  The police felt that a data recording unit and transmitting device found at the shop was installed in the garage by an employee at the Murco Petrol Station in Andoversford.

Consumers were notified by their banks about the withdrawals from their accounts as most of them appeared from countries like Jamaica.  The Gloucestershire police have spoken with the petrol company and local management regarding the credit card fraud.  Both companies are being very cooperative regarding the investigation.

The machine found to be the culprit in the fraud has been sent to the forensic science lab for examination.  Sgt. Tim Griffiths stated that they received the first report of credit card cloning last Thursday.

As soon as the police began to look into the charges regarding the cards it was plain to see that the complaints were indeed serious.  Of the complaints it was easy to see that a number of fraudulent transactions occurred.  The police also stated that a warrant was executed on Saturday at the Murco Garage in Andoversford.  There were also warrants for Cheltenham and Churchdown issued.

Murco and the local management have been extremely helpful in allowing the searches to take place at their businesses to help stop the fraud.  Anyone who was in the Murco station between May and the first week in June are supposed to notify the police if they were experiencing any suspicious transactions.  It seems this is the time when the person or group was active in the shop.

From appearance of the credit card cloning the gang or person gathered information for about a month before they moved on.  While the police feel it had to be an employee of the shop or someone who installed the credit card machine, they are as yet uncertain who was really behind the fraud. 

The police are hoping to get information from the machine they recovered in hopes that it will tell them something.  Credit card fraud especially cloning has been increasing in the UK over the last few years.  As more consumers use their credit cards at more locations it seems to increase.  Even with new security, consumers are still suffering from credit card fraud.

The police are working very hard in order to stop the fraud, but they also urge consumers to be more vigilant in checking their credit card statements and not letting their credit card out of sight.  Most often the credit card is cloned by using the machine their card is being swiped through, which makes it doubly hard to figure out what is safe and what is not.

Back To Credit Card Updates July 2008