A gang led by a Swedish "hacker", who lived a lavish life and made luxury purchases with fake credit cards, was dismantled by the police in Thessaloniki and Kilkis.
The five-member gang - three of whom were arrested - made purchases worth more than 30,000 euros using hundreds of fake credit cards. According to police, the mastermind was a 25-year-old Swede, who took advantage of his computer skills. By participating in online discussions in his country, he discovered websites that offered for sale credit card numbers that had been stolen online from their legitimate owners. Using virtual online currencies (bitcoins), the perpetrator bought at least (1,085) such numbers.
He then procured the appropriate equipment and created the fake cards, which had bank logos, both Greek and non-Greek, bore the names of three members of the ring as their owner's details and numbers that were different from those stored on their magnetic media and were changed every time these numbers were blocked by the credit institutions.
Last September, the members of the gang made purchases with these cards from commercial stores in Thessaloniki, while at the same time living a luxurious life in hotels in the city.
Along with the 25-year-old, who has repeatedly been in the hands of the authorities in his country for similar offenses, the police arrested his 55-year-old uncle and a 44-year-old man, while they are searching for the other two members of the ring.
It is estimated, however, that the members of the organization carried out at least 212 transactions with a total cost of over 33,000 euros.
