Bali Police arrest 2 Bulgarians for alleged ATM skimming

Police in Bali arrested two Bulgarian nationals for an alleged skimming attempt, after initially catching one of them removing a hidden camera at a local ATM machine in Canggu, leading authorities to investigate a possible skimming network from Bulgaria. 

“We delved into [the case] and a joint task force was able to apprehend another accomplice at a villa in Seminyak, who was working with the suspect. Both the suspects and evidence were taken to the office of Bali Police’s special crime unit,” Bambang Tertianto, vice director of the unit, said in a statement. 

Police seized a number of items, including several hidden cameras that had been modified to look like TapCash, which is an e-money card issued by Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI). According to the statement, authorities are now investigating whether a skimming network in Bulgaria could be at play here.

The suspects, identified as Metodi Angelov Nikolov and Yanko Naydenov Borisov, have been individually charged with articles under Indonesia’s Information and Electronic Transactions Law (UU ITE), which carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison. 

Bali has quite a bad rap for ATM skimmers, many cases of which have involved Bulgarian nationals. Earlier this month, the Denpasar District Court sentenced three Bulgarians to seven months in prison each for attempting an ATM skimming scheme on the island.