Credit card scam
McPherse Thompson, Staff Reporter
Fraud squad, investigators seize over 600 letters
Local police believe they have uncovered an international credit card scam
which uses the World Wide Web and a Montego Bay-based company to
offer a credit limit of US$4,000 (about J$142,000) in return for a
US$100 "processing fee".
Investigators have already seized more than 600 letters sent to Jamaica by
people living in at least five countries, including the United States, who
have responded to the offer from Global Interactive Investments Club
(GIIC), said to be based in Edmonton, Canada.
The letters have been mailed through Transportation Data Processing
(TDP), of Montego Bay, St. James.
Hundreds of people have continued to apply for the credit card, which
guarantees credit regardless of bad credit history and requires no credit
check.
GIIC has been using the Internet to invite applications, telling prospective
customers that the card would be issued by "a prestigious international
offshore bank." As a one-time processing fee, it asks applicants to "make
your international money order in the amount of US$100, payable to
'GIIC'."
However, the police believe they may have stumbled on a major
international fraud, partly because the bank purporting to be issuing the
cards has not been named, and investigations revealed that potential
cardholders were not being issued the "plastic" money.
Instead of issuing the credit cards, the company, after receiving the money
it requests for processing the documents, writes the potential cardholder
giving excuses for not issuing the cards, a police source said.
The source said Fraud Squad detectives, along with the Postal Security
Department, have already seized more than 600 letters responding to the
offer from countries such as Australia, Spain, Switzerland, the United
States and Canada. The detectives will also be seeking the assistance of
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) in their probe, the police source said.
Mechanisms
The Gleaner understands that the police have also put in place mechanisms
to intercept other letters at the Central Sorting Office at Camp Road in
Kingston and post offices in Montego Bay. But Postmaster General, Sam
Stewart, declined to comment on the matter because he said it was under
police investigation.
GIIC asked applicants to sign a form affirming their adherence to the
terms and conditions of the Club, as well as agreeing not to hold public
meetings or advertise the services of GIIC.
Applicants were initially asked to use a form available on the Internet and
to forward applications to TDP Ltd. at Mangrove Way in the Montego
Bay Freezone. General Manager of the Free Zone, Owen Higgins, said
TDP used to operate in the Free zone, but was no longer doing so.
The Gleaner obtained information from the Internet in which GIIC said the
application form for the credit cards had the old address and that letters
should now be mailed to GIIC, 36 Gloucester, Suite B-151, #3 Miranda
Ridge, Montego Bay. When The Gleaner visited the address there was no
one to respond to questions about GIIC and the suite was operating as a
collection point for mail. An employee there said individuals who used the
mail boxes were issued with passwords which they use to access their
mail, but she could give no information on who collects GIIC's letters.
Several attempts to contact GIIC overseas by telephone, as well as
through the Canadian High Commission in Kingston, were unsuccessful up
to yesterday.
However, the High Commission, through the International Trade Centre in
Edmonton, Alberta, was able to establish that GIIC has an address in
Canada, but its business was being carried out by another firm based in
Arizona, U.S.A.
The High Commission also said the Trade Centre is continuing its
investigations, but said GIIC was not registered, as required, with the
Canadian Council of Betta Business Bureaux, the equivalent of Jamaica's
Registrar of Companies |
