"Payment Fails"... Delivery Drivers Pretending to Pay and Selling Cloned Cards Arrested

Busan Dongnae Police Station Arrests 8 Members of a Group Forging Credit Cards to Sell to Delivery App Face-to-Face Payment Users

A suspect purchasing precious metals at a jewelry store using a cloned credit card. [Image source=Busan Police Agency]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] A woman in her 30s living in Busan, Ms. A, ordered food through a delivery app last June.

A teenage boy, Mr. B, who came to deliver the food, received the card from Ms. A and tried to pay for the food using a portable ‘card terminal,’ but when it didn’t work well, he used another terminal to make the payment again. The payment was processed normally, and the card was returned.

About a month later, Ms. A received a strange payment bill. She was told that she had purchased precious metals at a jewelry store out of nowhere.

Ms. A’s credit card had been cloned. The first card terminal that Mr. B swiped was a credit card skimmer, and the payment did not go through; the second terminal he swiped was the real payment terminal.

In this way, a gang that illegally cloned customers’ credit cards who ordered food through delivery apps was caught by the police.

On the 28th, the Dongnae Police Station in Busan booked eight people, including teenage Mr. B, on charges of violating the Specialized Credit Finance Business Act for cloning customers’ cards handed over for payment and purchasing precious metals.

According to the police, Mr. B conspired with four delivery drivers and cloned customers’ credit cards who ordered food through delivery apps in Sajik-dong, Dongnae-gu, last June.

They are suspected of using a so-called ‘skimmer,’ a credit card cloning device, to clone customers’ cards who ordered food and create counterfeit cards to sell.

The gang sold about 12 counterfeit cards at 500,000 won each through SNS messengers such as Telegram.

Three others in their 20s, including Mr. C, who were caught together, are suspected of illegally purchasing and using cloned cards.

From July for two months, Mr. C and others traveled to jewelry stores nationwide and used illegally cloned credit cards to make payments worth about 17.43 million won before being caught.

The Dongnae Police Station launched an investigation after receiving damage reports and analyzing store CCTV footage, leading to their arrest.

The police are expanding the investigation, expecting additional victims in line with the recent increase in delivery app usage.

The Intelligence Team of Dongnae Police Station said, “The risk of crime has increased with the rise in delivery app usage after COVID-19,” and advised, “It is recommended to pay directly online when ordering as much as possible, and if paying face-to-face, IC card payments using the insert method are safer, while swiping should be suspected as it may be a cloning device.”

A Busan Police Agency official stated, “We decided to disclose the investigation details to prevent similar crimes such as credit card cloning.”