A man allegedly engaged in credit card fraud has been arrested in Paranaque City by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
In a statement, the NBI identified the suspect as Jeffrey Abapo Arellano who was found in possession of a counterfeit credit card of Banco de Oro (BDO).
It said that after Arellano's arrest last Feb. 15, he was charged before the Paranaque City prosecutor's office with violation of Section 9(a) of Republic Act No. 8484, the Access Devices Regulations Act of 1998.
The entrapment operation was conducted by the NBI on request of BDO which reported that last Feb. 1 the bank “received information about the alleged involvement of an organized crime syndicate in a ‘card switching scheme.’”
“According to BDO, a delivery courier service informed them that one of their couriers was offered by Subject Jeffrey to hand over some credit cards in exchange of monetary consideration, and asked the same to meet in a gasoline station in Paranaque City,” the NBI said.
With this information, the bureau said “operatives of the NBI's Cybercrime Division (NBI-CCD) conducted surveillance operations and they were able to witness the transactions of Subject and the delivery courier where the former handed the tampered credit card to the latter, to be delivered to its rightful owner.”
It said the delivery courier received the item “without being aware that the credit card was already tampered.”
It also said: "BDO notified NBI-CCD that the compromised BDO credit card had been activated and utilized for multiple transactions in Sorsogon. BDO likewise informed the CCD that the aforementioned transactions were fraudulent and the real owner immediately disputed the said transaction and had the card blocked."
The NBI-CCD decided to conduct an entrapment operation against Arellano after being informed by BDO that that delivery courier was asked to supply another credit card and meet up with Arellano again on Feb. 15 in Paranaque City.
“With this, CCD operatives conferred with the delivery courier service and BDO representatives to conduct an entrapment operation,” said the agency.
“They agreed to release a single parcel containing a high-limit credit card to the Subject, knowing that he would create a counterfeit copy thereof,” it added.