By Joy Watters and Lynne Stewart

ORGANISED CRIME gangs are cloning people’s credit card details in “factories” before selling them on to third parties, a Tayside Police fraud expert said.

Detective Constable John Cullerton was speaking after a Malaysian illegal immigrant who came to Dundee and used a “cloned” credit card to obtain and attempt to obtain goods appeared at court yesterday.

Soon Peng Chop (33), who gave his address are Palfron Tower, West Ham, admitted two charges, that on Thursday, at Debenhams, Overgate, he pretended that he was H. Zhu, the lawful holder of a Citibank Visa card, when said account was not held by H. Zhu or by Citibank, and attempt to get a jacket and £200 of vouchers by fraud.

He admitted that on the same day at Next he obtained a jacket and £200 of gift vouchers by fraud using the same card.

Depute fiscal Nadya Stewart said that the Metropolitan Police said the London address given by Chop did not exist. He was an illegal immigrant who was due to be interviewed by the authorities tomorrow.

She said that the credit card seemed to have been cloned without the owner’s knowledge. It was not in fact a Citibank card but was from the Bank of Israel and was in another name.

Chop had bought and signed for a jacket and £200 of gift vouchers at Next.

At Debenhams a member of staff was advised by a senior to carry out a security check. Chop said he didn’t understand and left the shop, leaving the card behind. He was seen to run off.

Solicitor Michael McGinley said there was little he could say given the fiscal’s information about accused being an illegal immigrant. The agent was not aware of this until it was revealed in court.

He said that Chop was apparently “a very small cog in a larger wheel, sent to Dundee from London to engage in these transactions and was not very good at it.”

Sheriff Hughes fined Chop a total of £600 and as he had no fixed address and no funds, he asked for no time to pay and he was sentenced to 28 days imprisonment.

DC Cullerton said while cloned credit cards aren’t a “particular problem” here, people should be careful when using their plastic and disposing of receipts.

He added that career criminals usually manufactured the cards, rather than the people caught using them.

“There are always occasions of cloned credit cards, but I wouldn’t say it was a significant problem,” he revealed.

“The people that use these cards are not always the ones making them. There can be ‘factories’ and the cards are sold on for use.

“I would advise people to guard their card details, like their pin number and credit card number and not to give them out to anyone.

“Also, when using your credit card, don’t let it out of sight while making a transaction and be careful when disposing of statements and receipts. Ideally they should be shredded.

“People should report lost or stolen cards immediately and if anyone has unrecognised transactions on the statements then report that immediately as well.

“The other thing is when using the cash point be aware of what’s around you and if there is anything unusual about the cash point don’t use it and report it the bank as soon as possible.”