Four Romanians charged for alleged involvement in Bali ATM skimming cases

Unfortunately, Bali has a bad rap for ATM skimming. Photo: Pixabay
Unfortunately, Bali has a bad rap for ATM skimming. Photo: Pixabay

Prosecutors at the Denpasar Court yesterday charged four Romanian citizens under Indonesia’s Electronic Information and Transactions Law and Criminal Code for their alleged involvement in ATM skimming crimes in Bali.

The Police arrested Alisa Sardaru (28), Sorin Velcu (34), Alin Serdaru (30) and Sorinel Miclescu (28) earlier in March, after receiving a report from Romanian Police that they were cyber crime recidivists.

The report prompted officers to coordinate with local banks and monitor the suspects’ movements for a week, until they eventually made the arrests at the Kuta hotel the group was staying at.

Among the evidence, prosecutors yesterday said police seized more than IDR 8 billion (USD 566,000) in cash, a used laptop, card readers and dozens of cards with magnetic strip data.

“All those cards contained data from bank accounts, which was a result of their skimming, and a number of those cards have subsequently been used for transactions at a number of ATM machines,” Prosecutor I Gde Raka Arimbawa said, as quoted by Detik.

Based on police investigation, Detik reported that the hacked bank accounts all belonged to foreigners.

The four Romanians face a maximum of seven years in prison and a maximum fine of IDR 700 million (USD 49,500).



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