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United Kingdom authorities Tuesday raided a counterfeit card factory in Birmingham and charged two individuals with conspiracy to defraud. The Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit says in a statement that it found a number of materials needed to steal card details and make counterfeit cards on a large scale in the factory, including stolen chip-and-PIN terminals, card-account numbers and fake magnetic stripe cards. Authorities say fraudsters use such materials to create fake mag-stripe cards they or others can use in countries that do not support chip-and-PIN cards. "These arrests are a significant development in our fight against organized criminal gangs responsible for this type of fraud," John Folan, a detective with the unit, says in a statement. In 2007, the crime unit was responsible for £107 million (US$200 million or 134 million euros) in estimated fraud savings, according to UK payments association APACS. The unit was formed in 2002. An APACS spokesperson tells CardLine Global an enhanced intelligence unit created within the crime unit "provides more-targeted information, which often leads to raids and hampers the work of fraudsters."
