Expat shoppers beware

I have discovered that a gang of enterprising criminals have figured out how to extract credit and debit card information from expat shoppers. They target cards that are issued by overseas banks. They make bogus cards from the information they steal and sell them. Typically the bogus card is used for one big shopping spree and then ditched.

I my case, my Mastercard account was charged a total of US$2000 of merchandise from two stores in Medan, North Sumatra, in April. Unfortunately, I have never been to Medan. Often the shopping spree is done outside Indonesia -- Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Australia, for example. I discovered three friends living in Jakarta were also victims. When I called the American Embassy to report it, they sighed and said many Americans had already been hit.

The shopping sprees on debit cards are particularly painful because large sums can be charged -- in one case $13,000. The information is stolen from your card either by stealing your tossed out carbons (always destroy them first) or directly from stores where the card was used. There is even a gadget that allows the criminal to swipe the card the same way the store does and record all the data to make a fake credit card. This can be done under the counter while you are paying for your purchase.

I visited the Metro Jaya Regional Police on Jl. Sudirman and was interviewed by the banking unit of their economic investigations department. Few expats bother to report this crime to them. On occasion, criminals are caught in Jakarta using fake cards of people who do not live in Indonesia. The police suspect an international ring or "mafia" styled gang are involved.

Indonesians get hit frequently with ATM card fraud in Jakarta. But the police seem too reluctant to admit that credit card information is actually stolen from expat shoppers in Jakarta and mutter about Bali.

But given the large number of expats in Jakarta who have been hit, I see no reason to blame other municipalities. There are smart criminals in Jakarta, surely. Looking at my shopping patterns compared to other victims, I see that there are only a few stores that we all use frequently. Busy supermarkets that cater to expats. So be careful, expats, when you go shopping and think about using cash instead of credit cards at the supermarkets.

CYNTHIA MACKIE

Jakarta