Crime | 31 people arrested for mass credit card fraud

The Judiciary Police has busted a case of credit card abuse in a joint operation with the Hong Kong Police Force, with a total of 31 local people arrested.
The police managed to retrieve data pertaining to 165 credit cards, 145 of which were issued in Macau, three in Hong Kong and 17 in the U.S. However, as many as 500 people may have fallen victim to the scam in total, according to the police.
Of the 31 people arrested by police, 18 were students at university and secondary schools. Intelligence obtained by the local police uncovered links to the students. The police got in touch with several students through the Campus Safety Network, three of whom were found to have played key roles in the scam.
The three key figures were aged between 19 and 21, surnamed Cheong, Ma and Ho, and studied at the same university. Following orders from the head of the syndicate, Cheong and Ma recruited part-time workers on social media platforms to participate in the fraud.
Cheong and Ma distributed the stolen credit card data to the workers, who were required to input the card data into their own Apple ID. Afterwards, they were told to purchase game coins on Apple’s website costing either USD99.99 or USD49.99.
The remuneration Cheong and Ma received for the job was MOP50 per purchase. They took half for themselves and distributed the other half to the workers. Ma confessed that at least 240 sets of credit card data were in their hands. AL