German police have arrested three Bulgarian citizens on charges of skimming of bank cards in Germany.

The organized crime group comprised three Bulgarian men aged between 24 and 31, the Ministry of the Interior in Sofia said in a statement on Thursday.

One of the men was arrested on May 13 while operating data-skimming equipment at an ATM in a Hamburg hotel with the purpose of stealing personal data from bank cards.

The other two men were arrested shortly after. A police search of an apartment rented by the group in Hamburg found skimming equipment, a tablet and a portable computer, according to the statement.

Bulgarian police launched their investigation following a tip from Germany about Bulgarian citizens being involved in skimming bank cards in the western European country.

Card skimming is a fraud that involves illegitimate recording of information from a debit or credit card’s magnetic stripe at an ATM. After the information has been recorded, it is usually copied on a counterfeit card and used to make fraudulent purchases.

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