Terror Suspects in UK Used Poker Sites to Launder Money

Thursday, 26 July 2007

One aspect of the recent trials of would-be terrorist bombers in the UK that has made headlines in the US is their use of stolen credit cards to launder money through online poker sites.

One aspect of the recent trials of would-be terrorist bombers in the UK that has made headlines in the US is their use of stolen credit cards to launder money through online poker sites. However, this is the only publicly documented case of such fraud occurring.
In a case study of precautions taken by online gambling company Betfair, Sandra Barton-Nicol, head of risk investigations says that minimising credit card fraud is extremely high on the company’s agenda.
“We also create a profile of an average punter’s activity and see if the behavior tallies. A large part of fraud detection is in identifying traffic and transactions that fall outside the norm – Internet protocol (IP) addresses that don’t match the registered company, credit cards details that differ from the given particulars and so on.” Telephone numbers and email addresses are also verified and cross-checked for consistency by dedicated staff as well as specialised software.
However, it has been reported that more than 130 stolen credit cards were used at 43 online poker rooms to launder money for the terrorists’ websites which posted lessons in hacking and bomb making alongside violent videos. Waseem Mughal’s computer even contained instructions for preparing an explosive suicide vest.
US legislation banning online gambling was put in place to counter exactly this kind of activity; however, it has failed to prevent it.
Betfair’s head of risk investigations also said ‘We don’t want people coming to our site and using other people’s credit cards.’



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