BRITISH MEDIA GIVES WIDEST PUBLICITY TO ALLEGED CREDIT CARD SCAM BY TAMIL TIGERS TO ROB MILLIONS FROM UK CITIZENS

By Walter Jayawardhana

Major newspapers in London including the Telegraph and the Times and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have given widest publicity about the alleged credit card scam operated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to fund its terrorist activities in Sri Lanka.

Police sources said the terrorist group banned in the United Kingdom is suspected to have robbed millions of pounds from British customers who used their debit and credit cards to buy gasoline from what are called petrol stations.

The highly reliable Times said , “Police are investigating incidents at about 200 independently owned petrol stations. The inquiries began in Hull and spread to Leeds, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Norfolk, Peterborough, Bristol and Nottingham.”

The police investigators have found that the alleged LTTE fraudsters used machinery to “skim” data from credit and debit cards, which was transferred to bogus cards. Those bogus cards have been used to rob millions of pounds from accounts of British bank customers.

The investigations discovered that Card details cloned in Britain have been used to obtain funds in Thailand, where the Sri Lankan terrorist group the LTTE is very much active.

The fraudulent methods earlier used to raise funds by Al Queda connected Islamist terrorists have been now adopted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or commonly known as the Tamil Tigers.
Maxwell Keegal, first secretary of the Sri Lanka High Commission, told the newspapers that terrorists lent asylum-seekers money to set up petrol stations and newsagents, then forced them to use skimming machines.

“Often the LTTE will use threats against the people or their families in Sri Lanka,” he said. “We do not want the good name of the Sri Lankan people to be tarnished. I don’t want people to think all Sri Lankan shopkeepers are crooks.”

Meanwhile a Reuters agency report said, “The technique is estimated to have illegally drained up to 30 million pounds ($60 million) from accounts last year, according to APACS, Britain's association for electronic payments.”

The money is mostly used by the terrorist group to procure sophisticated arms for its terrorist activities and for propaganda to be broadcast over US and French communication satellites to raise more funds among the Tamil diaspora spread around Canada, UK, Australia and Europe.

Maxwell Keegal, first Secretary of the Sri Lankan High Commission in London further said , "This is not just isolated cases, this is part of a network. If the British authorities are to get hold of this and stop it, they need to get hold of the LTTE network."

"Quite clearly this was well organised, it was done on an international basis," Detective Inspector Paul Welton, an investigator in Hull, northern England, told the BBC.
"The people involved were able to obtain from all the debit and credit cards used, all the details off those cards.

"They were also able to obtain the PIN numbers used. Putting those two together they were able to clone cards, and use those cloned cards to take money off people's accounts.
"We have questioned a number of people in relation to our particular investigation, we are still looking for other people, and we will continue looking for them until we find them."
Keegal said the Sri Lankan government was providing evidence to British authorities and working with them to try to get to the bottom of the scam.

Once a user's credit or debit card details are known, much of the theft of funds is carried out abroad, often in Thailand, Indonesia and India, Keegal said. As well as extracting money directly, sometimes good are bought, then sold and the "laundered" cash used to fund operations.

Keegal has alleged that that the LTTE has provided loans to some Sri Lankan Tamils living in the United Kingdom to obtain gas station franchises and using them to participate in the credit card scam.