Police bust skimming gang

Four men have been charged after police in Durham, Canada, busted what they are describing as a large-scale counterfeit operation that targeted debit card users at a restaurant.

DurhamRegion.com reports that hundreds of blank plastic smart cards, skimming equipment and a number of pinhole cameras were seized as a result of the investigation by fraud officers, who set up surveillance after receiving information about the scam.

With the assistance of an employee, the scammers rigged a debit payment machine to record information from cards that was stored on a chip. They also concealed a pinhole camera in the ceiling that recorded victims as they entered the PIN number to make purchases, says Detective Constable Jeff Caplan.

Zenith Bank has launched the first chip-enabled Visa automated teller machine (ATM) into the Nigerian financial market, Vanguard reports.

The chip technology deployed by the bank, according to Filipe Dos Santos, Visa International senior VP, can accept all other Visa cards issued anywhere in the world and has more security measures to enhance safer transactions.

The launch by Zenith Bank follows the commencement of Visa electronic point-of-sale facilities at merchant outlets in Nigeria.

Despite a few initial delays, Belgium is becoming the first European country to standardise the electronic identity card, reports CR80News.

By the end of 2009, every Belgian citizen will be required to own an e-ID card - 11 million cards, according to most counts. To meet this requirement, close to 10 million cards will be issued to the country`s citizens over the next three to five years.

"Belgium is seen as the place where e-ID serves as an important tool in the promotion of knowledge," says Gilbert Leung, a sales manager with ACS, a Hong Kong-based manufacturer of card readers that is providing more than 100 000 smart card readers for the Belgium project.