Fraud accord: CCB CSP Victor Lo opens the conference

The Commercial Crime Bureau assisted Interpol in hosting a seminar on the Universal Classification System for counterfeit payment cards at the Police Officer's Club on April 23 and 24.

The Interpol initiative seeks to classify all counterfeit payment cards surfacing around the world in the hope of identifying the illegal factories responsible for their manufacture.

The Interpol working group was made up of numerous law enforcement agencies including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the United States Secret Service, the Dutch CRI and the German Bundeskriminalamt as well as representatives from the Payment Card Association including Mastercard, Visa and Europay. CCB officers and senior economic crime investigators from the Mainland and Macau were also in attendance.

Each representative spoke on the advantages of using the system and discussed the counterfeit card problem in their respective jurisdictions.

CCB Chief Superintendent Victor Lo Yik-kee welcomed the parties and outlined the Force's recent work in countering bogus card activity, including some major detections in Hong Kong and overseas.

"The Force has actively addressed these activities over the past two years and seized over 4,000 counterfeit cards saving the industry from potential losses of US$12 million," Mr Lo said.

"And Interpol has done a great job in establishing the universal classification system, thanks in part to the generous support of the credit card industry."

The two-day seminar was a great success for CCB's international liaison efforts and culminated in a formal dinner at the POC hosted by Assistant Commissioner (Crime) Peter Yam Tat-wing. Over 50 guests attended representing law enforcement agencies from around the region, along with the Payment Card Association.

In recognition of CCB's continued support of the Interpol Universal Classification System, Piet Lakeman, head of the Interpol delegation, made a presentation to Mr Yam.

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