SUPT. Pedro Sanchez (top) shows the skimming device seized from the two suspects: (from left) Romanian Gabriel Varga and Indonesian Milna Kamilia. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
TWO FOREIGNERS were arrested by the police after they were caught retrieving a skimming device from an automated teller machine (ATM) in a Quezon City bank Sunday morning.
Indonesian Milna Kamilia and Romanian Gabriel Varga were just about to leave the Bank of Commerce branch at the corner of Tomas Morato and Scout Lazcano in Barangay Sacred Heart when they were apprehended by policemen from the Quezon City Police District’s Kamuning station at 6:23 a.m.
Station commander Supt. Pedro Sanchez said that they found in Kamilia’s bag the skimming device, a memory chip and three clone cards. A skimming device can copy the data on an ATM card’s magnetic stripe, allowing the card to be cloned.
According to the police, they received a report from the bank on Saturday that the suspects were able to install a skimming device in one of its machines.
Sanchez added that they were still coordinating with the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Cybercrime Group to determine if the two were part of an international syndicate.
The pair was first spotted through a closed circuit television camera in the same bank on Dec. 6, attaching a skimming device to an ATM. Authorities, however, failed to catch them when they removed the device the following day.
On Saturday, the police official said they received word that the suspects had returned to the bank to carry out the same modus operandi.
Sanchez added that they have yet to determine how much money the duo was able to take from their victims.
According to the police official, Varga tried to resist arrest but was eventually subdued by his men. The two are now held at the Kamuning police station which is preparing to charge them with violating Republic Act (RA) No. 8484 or the Access Devices Regulation Act of 1998 and RA No. 8792 or the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000.
Sanchez, meanwhile, reminded the public to be vigilant in their bank transactions, especially during the holiday season.