Annual Report - COMPLETE - Australian Crime Commission

• the ACC’s coercive powers were successfully employed to obtain intelligence
from international identity crime offenders;
• the fraud register has successfully linked information which contributed to arrests
in other law enforcement jurisdictions; and
• intelligence obtained by the Determination resulted in changes to the online
displays of proof of identity documents at several state Births, Deaths and
Marriages Offices. These displays were being used to create fraudulent
documents.
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Project Carlby
This project led to the significant disruption of an international card skimming syndicate
through the seizure of 700 fraudulent credit cards, embossing and encoding machines
to produce skimmed cards and the detection and worldwide alert of approximately
1150 skimmed cards that were being used to commit fraud around the world. According
to industry experts, the 700 cards could have been used in transactions of up to $3.5
million, and the early detection of a further 1150 cards could potentially have saved
$5.75 million.
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ACC National Card Skimming Database
In March 2004, the ACC launched its pilot National Card Skimming Database to
protect Australian Eftpos and credit card holders from card-skimming. Card skimming
occurs when information on the magnetic strip of credit and Eftpos cards is copied
using a small device during a transaction, and transferred onto a blank card, to be
used without the knowledge of the card’s owner. The database, which is the first of
its kind in the Asia-Pacific region, boosted the ability of law enforcement agencies to
detect and stop card skimming by storing and sharing details of skimmed cards, and
provided intelligence of how and where the cards were skimmed. The database will
also help identify the organised gangs responsible for card skimming.
The pilot has now been finalised, and the ACC is assessing the results.
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Despite the limited use of the coercive powers in 2003–04 under the Identity Crime
and Card Skimming Determination, their use helped disrupt an international card
skimming operation (Project Carlby).
48 I ACC ANNUAL REPORT 2003–04