Police foil new ATM malware hack attack

Immigration police commissioner Nattatorn Prohsunthorn, right, elaborates on the alleged crime of Ukrainian Oleksandr Krachkovskyi, centre, at the Immigration Bureau in Bangkok on Thursday. (Photo by Somchai Poomlard)

Police believe they have foiled a planned malware attack on bank ATMs with the arrest of an east European man caught using forged credit cards to obtain money in Bangkok.

Oleksandr Krachkovskyi, 31, who has a Ukraine passport, was arrested at a shopping centre in Pratunam area on Wednesday while using a counterfeit credit card to withdraw money, Immigration Police commissioner Natthathorn Prohsunthorn told a media briefing on Thursday.

A search of his room at the Kitti Building on Mor Leng Road in Ratchathewi district, found 56 fake white credit cards, devices for reading and writing data on electronic cards, a computer and other equipment for forgery.

The suspect confessed he had bought data stolen from credit cards in Europe and the United States from a "CreditCard Mafia" network, and also sold card data online to transnational criminals in many countries, according to Pol Lt Gen Nattatorn. Police found data stolen from hundreds of US and European credit cards stored in his computer.

Police suspect him of also planning to infect bank ATMs in the country with malware. They found pictures of ATMs of particular banks and a particular series in Bangkok and other provinces. Police also found data relevant to the use of malware for ATM hacking.

The data is similar to that used to hack some bank ATMs last year, the immigration police chief said.

About 12 million baht was stolen from 21 ATMs of the state-run Government Savings Bank in Phuket, Surat Thani, Chumphon, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Phangnga, Phetchaburi and Bangkok. It forced the bank to close more than 3,000 ATMs, half of its total number nationwide, for security checks.

"The suspect planned to attack many ATMs of local banks, but was arrested before doing so," Pol Lt Gen Nattatorn alleged.

Mr Krachkovskyi was an overstayer, he said. He entered Thailand on March 11 last year and his tourist visa expired on March 25 last year.

Video by Somchai Poomlard