Immigration Thwarts Suspected Skimmers

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has stopped nine suspected Bulgarian bankcard skimmers from entering New Zealand.

Head of Immigration Steve Stuart says they were spoken to at Kuala Lumpur yesterday when attempting to board a flight to Auckland.

Two were found to have been arrested for credit card skimming offences in Mexico and admitted this after being confronted with intelligence about the matter. They were denied boarding, and the partner of one of them decided she did not want to continue the journey.

There were no grounds for preventing the other six travelling to New Zealand but when they arrived in Auckland late last night they declined to be interviewed by INZ about their intentions.

“Given the significant suspicions that we had about these six, we denied them entry to New Zealand and they returned to Kuala Lumpur,” Mr Stuart says.

“This was a classic example of a highly suspicious bunch being stopped either before or at the border, preventing them committing criminal activity in New Zealand.”