Two Russian mobsters who ran Europe’s most hi-tech

Two Russian mobsters who ran Europe’s most hi-tech credit card cloning factory were today (FRI) jailed for four years.

Vladimir Strogvin, 44, and Alexander Tanov, 33, produced made-to-order crooked Visa, Amex, and Mastercards that were so sophisticated they could fool the most intricate security systems.

The pair even had the equipment to produce holograms and emboss them on the plastic cards.

A huge team of footsoldiers working in top London restaurants would use portable swipe machines – known as ‘skimmers’ – to copy customers’ card details when they settled their bill.

Then Tanov would transfer the data onto blank plastic before handing them over to Strogvin, who would sell them to crooks across the UK at pnds stlg 250 a time.

It is believed the scam would have netted the pair pnds stlg 5 million.

But the plan to flood Britain’s streets with bent cards was smashed following an undercover operation by police.

Jailing the fraudsters, judge Peter Jackson said: ‘This was a sophisticated, well organised, and well planned fraud.

‘Hundreds of genuine credit cards were cloned and counterfeit cards produced.

The potential loss of this scheme was enormous, and you were difficult to detect.

‘It was only as a result of the courage and skill of the investigators – and luck – that you have been brought to justice.

‘

In January last year, detectives swooped on Tanov’s house in Streatham, south London, and seized huge amounts of state-of-the-art computer equipment used to manufacture bogus credit cards, 4000 pieces of blank plastic cards, and a hot foil press to emboss holograms.

Prosecutor Paul Addison told Southwark Crown Court: ‘Cards in various stages of production were also found, as was other paraphernalia necessary for the creation of counterfeit cards.

‘In other words, this was a credit card factory.

‘

The court heard how investigation began as a probe into the importation of high quality fake compact discs from Russia – prompted by the discovery of cut-price pirate sales at car boot sales.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry employed a former metropolitan police officer to go undercover as ‘George’ and purchase quantities of fake CDs in the middle of 1999.

His enquiries led him to Strogvin – who fled to the UK from St Petersburg with wife Irina, 45, as asylum seekers to escape the attentions of the KBG.

During the inquiry, George also discovered Strogvin was linked to pirate computer software – including popular Sony PlayStation games – disabled badges, and cloned mobile telephone cards.

After a few months, Strogvin offered George cloned credit cards, boasting he could supply high value gold and platinum versions.

Mr Addison said: ‘Strogvin said that he did Mastercard and Visa, and there was a big queue for the cards.

‘He recommended that it was best to use the cards outside of London.

‘

City of London Police were informed and discovered Strogvin played a ‘pivotal role’ in the illicit manufacture of cloned credit cards.

Another officer then infiltrated the gang and bought six Amex cards for pnds stlg 1,500, as well as borrowing a skimmer machine.

Days later he returned the device to Strogvin pretending that he could not operate it.

Mr Addison said: ‘This was a ruse to flush out other members of the conspiracy.

‘

Later that day, Tanov arrived at Strogvin’s home in Hendon, north west London, downloaded some card data from the machine, and left.

But he was tailed by detectives, who watched as he handed the skimmer to a crony in south London.

Two days later, on January 27 last year, police raided both men’s homes.

At Strogvin’s house they found 1,400 fake CDs with professional inlay cards, and a large amount of computer equipment including special leads used to download information from swipe machines.

At Tanov’s, they found an array of equipment for manufacturing and cloning cards.

Inquiries into the fake cards revealed that many of them used data swiped from the plastic of customers of London restaurants where other members of the gang worked.

This information would be be downloaded onto computer and transferred onto the magnetic strips of the forgeries.

Although officers estimated the loss in Britain at around pnds stlg 196,000, Mr Addison added: ‘The full scale of this fraud is not possible to quantify.

‘

Strogvin, of West Hendon Broadway, Hendon, and Tanov, from Bladon Court, Barrow Road, Streatham, last month admitted conspiracy to commit forgery.

Strogvin also pleaded guilty to misuse of trademarks relating to the fake CDs and PlayStations.

Both men got four years for the credit cards, while Strogvin was given six months concurrent for the other offences.

They will serve 32 months each.

Judge Peter Jackson said he would recommend that both men are kicked out of Britain when released.

Detectives have discovered pnds stlng 200,000 worth of fraud linked to the Russian gang following complaints from banks but believe the the figure could easily be as high as pnds stlng 5 million.

Counterfeit cards were found to have been used throughout Britain and Ireland, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria and the Ukraine.

After the case, the officer who led the operation – Det Insp Tony Drain, head of the City Police’s cheque and credit card unit – said: ‘This was the most sophisticated factory ever to be found in Western Europe, as well as one of the largest.

‘It is a very worrying discovery for the credit card industry and for members of the public.

‘

He also warned of the ‘tremendous threat to the credit card industry’ of organised Eastern European gangs setting up similar money spinning operations.

‘The whole point of skimming cards is that it gets around the normal security features,’ he added.

‘And at present there are no more features that can be put on cards.

However, new systems involving computer chips will not be put in place for another couple of years.

‘

David Martin, head of the British Phonographic Industry’s anti-piracy unit, commented on the pirate CD enterprise, which saw ‘George’ first purchase music by hit Welsh band Catatonia, followed by a host of music stars from Westlife and Robbie Williams, to Abba, the Beautiful South, Bob Dylan, Simply Red and Glasgow based Texas.

Mr Martin said: ‘We are concerned about the proliferation of counterfeit music from what was the former Eastern Block and also concerned about links with organised crime, evidenced in this investigation.

‘Without doubt these people are linked to Russian mobsters.

‘

Counterfeiting credit cards has become a boom underworld industry.

Losses due to the use of cloned cards currently stands at over pnds stlng 300 million a year.

Genuine credit card holders often only discover they have fallen victim when their next statement arrives in the post.

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