New Tool For Terrorists – Prepaid Gift Cards
October 5, 2007 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
Terrorists are always looking for new ways to move money around and finance their attacks and apparently they’ve found one. Organizations and individuals involved in terror cells are now buying prepaid merchandise cards and using cell phones and the Internet to buy items and transfer money. Prepaid cards are the type of instrument you can obtain anonymously and as a result, a hot commodity for terrorists.
Law enforcement officials say these newer cards, many of which can be reloaded online or at checkout counters, are an ideal tool for credit-card thieves, drug rings, and even terrorist cells. “It is a great concern to DEA and the FBI because of the terrorist financing angle,” says Don Semesky, chief of the office of financial operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Law enforcement officials have not yet prosecuted many cases involving prepaid cards, but they see the impact already. In one case this year, a Mexican criminal caught at the border used stolen credit cards to transfer funds onto prepaid cards. And U.S. police in the Southwest have noted clear changes in money movements across the border, where they closely track suspicious wire transfers. The number of dodgy transfers is drying up. “The dollar numbers that we’re looking at are declining dramatically,” says Arizona Assistant Attorney General Cameron H. Holmes. “The use of stored-value cards is, if not the main reason, at least one reason they are able to escape our scrutiny.”
