Credit card fraud arrests have many thinking about European banking

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ)- Caught with thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise, police round up a group in Lexington, charging them with crimes against credit.

Everyone loves a good shopping spree but what happens when you’re not the one swiping your own plastic and you don’t get to tear the tags off clothes a receipt says you just purchased?

Five people arrested recently in Lexington may be able to tell us. Meylan Montalvo-Gomez, Naivys Columnie-Panto, Leyois Basanta-Lopez, Mayara Porto-Zamora and Oscar Luis Betancourt-Leon were arrested and charged with crimes related to credit card fraud.

Lexington Police say they’re part of a criminal syndicate and were caught with fake credit cards, stealing thousands of dollars in clothing. It all happened in Lexington, and according to police, all five are now in jail.

Their charges are common. According to Barclay’s, 47% of the entire world’s credit card fraud happens in the U.S.

Soon though, businesses and banks will join their European counterparts using technology to fight credit card criminals, according to Central Bank’s, Steve Kelly.

“There are more opportunities. Frankly, there are more people with credit cards or debit cards now,” says Kelly. “One of the big things we’re working on right now is a process that the industry calls EMV, or the ‘chip cards. We actually have a chip credit card example here. We’re starting to issue those to new customers and reissues today.”

Kelly says the security is in the chip, which creates a unique code with each transaction, rather than mass storage of information on the magnetic stripe, which is easily copied or skimmed.

“The industry is estimating that use of both signature and the chip cards will reduce in-person fraud by 80%,” says Kelly.