Samir Chohra and Joel Mouffok
have been arrested for credit card fraud.
Boonlua Chatree
Two more French nationals have been arrested for
allegedly trying to copy tourists’ ATM cards.
Samir Chohra and Joel Mouffok, both 27, were taken into
custody Sept. 19 at the corner of Second Road and Soi 5 after being detained
by volunteers.
Bruno Roger Motsch, 48, told police he was withdrawing
money from a nearby Kasikorn Bank ATM when Mouffok approached him, asking
for assistance because his card did not work in the machine. The Frenchman
asked to compare his card to Motsch’s to see if there was a problem.
Motsch obliged, but noticed Mouffok was holding an
odd-looking card in his hand and quickly demanded his card back, assuming it
was a card-skimming machine used to read magnetic strips to create
counterfeit cards.
The suspect fled, but Motsch called for help and the
suspect was corralled. Police did not find the card skimmer, but, under
interrogation, Mouffok reportedly coughed up the name of his alleged
accomplice Chohra.
Investigators are holding the two men as they investigate
their links to a suspected credit-card fraud ring that has already netted
the arrests of four other French nationals of Middle East origin this year.
