On Monday, the Brussels Prosecutor’s office confirmed it had opened a judicial inquiry into a vast prepaid credit card fraud. It didn’t want to comment on the case any further. According to the Gazet van Antwerpen and Het Belang van Limburg, the fraudsters stole at least 600 credit cards. Many victims do not yet know their card was used fraudulently. Prepaid credit cards are payment cards that are not linked to a bank account, and can be topped up like telephone cards. You can top them up by an amount of your choice, with a maximum of 8,000 euros. Axa, Belfius and bpost all offer this kind of service. They can be bought anonymously, and the holder doesn’t have to prove their identity when making purchases.
The fraudsters are said to have hacked prepaid cards at several financial establishments, according to the Gazet van Antwerpen and Het Belang van Limburg. The Brussels judicial financial police know of at least 500 victims, who all saw money they put on their card disappear.
At this stage in the inquiry, it is too early to determine whether the same perpetrator is responsible for all the incidents. No suspect has yet been identified and the perpetrator’s MO is not yet known.
(Source: Belga)
