3RD STRATEGIC MEETING ON PAYMENT CARD FRAUD ON 13-14 DECEMBER 2016, BANGKOK, THAILAND

On 13 - 14 December 2016, the Director for Police Services of the ASEANAPOL Secretariat PSSUPT FERDINAND RP BARTOLOME, attended the Third Strategic Meeting on Payment Card Fraud (PCF) hosted by the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), and organized by Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), ASEANAPOL, and INTERPOL with the support of the Romanian National Police and the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok, Thailand. 

The two-day meeting brought together 30 law enforcement officers from 4 EU Member States: Austria, Greece, France and Romania with their counterparts from the ASEAN countries, including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, and representatives from the private sector, coming from the European ATM Security Team (EAST), Liquid Nexxus, the National Bank of Thailand and the Thai Commercial Banks. Participants summarized operational achievements in the area of combating cyber fraud and decided on further steps on security of non-cash means of payment. 

Graced by the attendance of Police Major General Chayout Rattanaubol from the Central Investigation Bureau of the Royal Thai Police and the Deputy Executive Director of the ETDA, Chaichana Mitrpant, the Meeting highlighted the importance of the issues facing the digital payments environment and the need for a strong global alliance to counter cyber fraud. 

The Deputy Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Thailand, Luisa Ragher, presented the need for inter-regional relationships between law enforcement agencies and the private sector from the EU and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

In a press released by Europol, the main focus of the event was to exchange expertise in the area of prevention and combating ATM/POS fraud, data compromising, ATM malware as well as eCommerce fraud. New and unreported modus operandi recently detected by different investigative units were shared between experts and cases involving European criminals active in Asia were discussed, which will result in operational plans for coordinated actions in the near future. The Head of EC3, Steven Wilson, said: “Electronic transaction security is of great importance to business and customers and this cannot be achieved without strong international cooperation between the public and private sectors. This event has provided the law enforcement community with a comprehensive overview of payment fraud and how it is evolving globally."

Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre has consistently taken a proactive approach assisting law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in the European Union (EU) to combat payment card fraud (PCF) and with the cooperation of ASEANAPOL and INTERPOL, and supports of Romanian National Police had undertaken three strategic meetings, including this one, initiating joint PCF investigations in EU and Asia. 

 As of present, EUROPOL is actively developing international cooperation on combating payment fraud, which is one of the EU priorities (Cybercrime - Payment Fraud - led by the Romanian Police) within the EU Policy Cycle 2014/2017 for organised crime and serious international crime as endorsed by the EU Council.