The increasing threat posed by fraudulent payment card activities by organised crime groups has led to the creation of the Investigative Network of Law Enforcement specialists from the European Union and ASEAN countries. This initiative, led by Europol, is supported by both ASEANAPOL and INTERPOL, with the assistance of the European Association for Secure Transactions (EAST) representing the private sector.

This network comprises law enforcement officers from EU Member States and 10 ASEAN countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

This initiative was established during the 4th Payment Card Fraud meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia. This event, which was organised by Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) on 19 – 20 July 2017, provided the law enforcement community with a comprehensive overview of payment card fraud issues, such as compromising payment card data, ATM malware and e-Commerce fraud. The event, which was co-organised with ASEANAPOL and INTERPOL, with the support of the Romanian National Police and the Indonesian National Police (INP) was hosted by the EU Delegation to Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam. A specific action plan concerning further cross-regional cooperation between European and Asian law enforcement was devised, following recent successful operations between the two regions.