Scholar arrested for credit card scam

CHARGES of fraud and estafa were filed yesterday against a university scholar accused of hacking credit cards.

Jerwin Gurrea Minglanilla, 25, was arrested by police in an entrapment operation in a food outlet in barangay Punta Princesa, Cebu City, on Wednesday.

His arrest stemmed from a complaint filed last Feb. 29 by a victim Dr. Wilson Carvajal dela Calzada, who went to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG-7).

Minglanilla  admitted to police that he could extract credit card numbers by surfing in the Internet.

Dela Calzada, a holder of a Citibank Gold Visa credit card, said his card was used without his knowledge to buy Air Philippines plane tickets on line.

He said he was notified by Citibank about the use of his credit card last Feb. 12. Dela Calzada said he learned a few days later that the plane ticket purchases went up to P72,523.

Dela Calzada went with CIDG-7 and Police Center for Aviation Security (PCAS) personnel to inform the Air Philippines office about the fraudulent online ticket purchases.

The passengers identified as Malou Liquin, Rusty Pagusara, Jonalyn Pagusara and Januar Javier said they bought the tickets from Minglanilla at discounted prices.

Javier contacted Minglanilla and pretended that he needed two more tickets for Ratmun Lopez and Nilda Lopez.

Minglanilla offered to sell the tickets at P500 each.

Javier met with Minglanilla in a food outlet and gave him marked money, which contained ultraviolet powder for identification.

Police identified Minglanilla through a description given by Javier and arrested him.

Recovered from Minglanilla’s possession were the marked money, a photocopy of an SSS ID and credit card bearing the name of Wilson dela Calzada and photocopies of several credit card application forms belonging to other persons.