A crook who used eBay to sell electronic devices that clone bank cards at cashpoints has been unmasked by The Mail on Sunday. 

Known as skimmers, the matchbox-size machines fit on to card slots to read unsuspecting bank customers’ private data, enabling criminals to clone their cards and steal cash in a widespread fraud that costs Britons many millions of pounds each year.

Despite being illegal under the Fraud Act 2006, dozens of skimmers have been sold in the UK for prices up to £765 on auction website eBay. Among the sellers according to the Daily Mail was Habibur Rahman, of East London.

Contacted by an undercover reporter about buying a skimmer, Rahman, 27, said: ‘[It’s] good money if ur patient and put the time in. It’s all about time.

‘I have some customers buy these on a regular basis. So they must be doing sumthing right. People who buy it they no what they are doing. It works just need to no the right places to get ur money [sic].’

Our reporter bought a panel used with a skimmer to disguise a pinhole camera that records a customer’s PIN. The item cost £65 and arrived in the post within days.

The Mail on Sunday traced his eBay seller address to a £300,000 three-bedroom terrace house in East Ham, London. There, a man whose photograph is on Facebook under the name Habibur Rahman claimed he had never heard of him.

When told about this report, he shouted: ‘Get off my property.’ Later that day the listings were taken off eBay.

An analysis of Rahman’s eBay account revealed he has been selling skimming devices for at least six months and has made 42 transactions.

Comment

Following the Safe Community Algarve Cybercrime Seminar at Tavira we received a report that these skimmers had been available on ebay. A check made at the time did not surface any.