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span class="caption" style="width: 510px;">Gotcha: Suspects in an electronic data theft ring cover their faces during a press conference at the Jakarta Police’s special investigations division unit on Tuesday. The men were charged with allegedly cloning ATM cards and stealing millions of rupiah since November. JP/Wendra AjistyatamaThe top official at the Jakarta Police’s cyber crimes unit is warning people to take care of their ATM cards following the arrest of four men for cloning ATM cards and allegedly stealing millions of rupiah from other people’s bank accounts.

“You should really cover your hand when entering your PIN to avoid others from misusing your PIN later on,” unit chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Audie Latuheru, said on Tuesday.

The Jakarta Police announced on Tuesday that officers had arrested four men for allegedly breaking into numerous bank accounts and making away with more than Rp 100 million (US$10,900).

“Two of the suspects worked as cashiers at a cafe in Bali. When they swiped their customers’ ATM cards or debit cards through the cash registers’ card skimmers, the customers’ personal data would be recorded. They used this data to break into the bank accounts,” Audie said.

The suspects, he said, would also take a peek at the customers’ hand movements when they were entering their PINs on the cafe’s EDC payment machine.

“The stolen electronic data would then be downloaded onto empty magnetic-stripe cards, which would then be used to break into the bank accounts through ATM machines.

Any card with a magnetic stripe was subject to cloning threats: including credit cards, airline frequent flyer cards and game center customer cards, he added.

Police have identified the suspects as FIR, 35; ZA, 26; AA, 25; and TK, 25.

FIR has been named as the organizer, while ZA and AA were the cashiers, the police said, while identifying TK as the owner of the bank account used to collect the stolen money.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said that the investigation began shortly after several people reported suspicious activity in their bank accounts on March 15.

“We traced the electronic transactions involving the stolen money, one by one, until we finally apprehended the four suspects between May 1 and May 3,” he said.

ZA was arrested in Kuta and AA was arrested in Jimbaran, both in Bali, on May 1, while FT was arrested in Jimbaran and TK in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, on May 3.

According to Audie, the suspects had been committing their crimes since November.

“We have also confiscated two laptops, eight skimmers, three CPUs, 1 EDC machine, four cell phones, a bundle of empty magnetic stripe cards, 40 grams of gold jewelry bought from the crime’s proceeds, and Rp 123 million in cash,” he said.

Rikwanto said that the suspects were charged with organized larceny, which has a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment, and with electronic data theft under the 2008 Information and Electronic Transaction (ITE) Law, which has a penalty of 12 years’ imprisonment.

“We have also charged them with money laundering, as stipulated in the 2010 Money Laundering Law. Under this charge, the suspects are liable to a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and to pay Rp 20 billion in fines,” Rikwanto said.