Police raided the hotel room of a Indian man on Monday (June 29) for allegedly skimming credit cards in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.<br /><br />Muhammad Asik Budinezaraoter, 39, was found alone in the room with several electronic devices inside.<br /><br />Officers confiscated one laptop, mobile phones and a card copy machine that they believed were being used by the alleged skimmer.<br /><br />Police said they had identified a fraud gang that would transfer the hacked credit card information, usually from American and Canadian cards, into a plain credit card and use it to buy expensive goods.<br /><br />Police Major General Prachuab Wongsuk said the arrest was made after they received information about a man offering suspicious deals to shop owners.<br /><br />He said: "The alleged offender would go to jewellery shops in town and offer to buy their goods without taking it while giving them a cut of its price.<br /><br />"We started the investigation and believe it might be the skimmer so we approached this man and arrested him before he admitted the crime."<br /><br />The revenue received from the scam would be shared among the shops, the gang, and the skimmer himself, according to police.<br /><br />Police found that the amount stolen in the province is at least 500,000 THB (160,000USD) and could be more 30million THB (966,000USD) across the country.<br /><br />He added: "Initially, we found out that the man had already bought 500,000 THB (160,000USD) worth of goods here.<br /><br />"But the gang has also sent him to other provinces so we believe that the total damage could reach more than 30million THB (966,000USD)."<br /><br />The police initially charged the man with possessing and using counterfeit credit cards and will continue the investigation to press charges against the shop owners in association with the crime.
