Brussels, 19/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - An international payment card fraud ring, estimated to have caused €1 million of damage, has been foiled by the French Gendarmerie, which has arrested five Romanian, Moldavian and Bulgarian nationals, Europol indicated in a press release on Thursday 15 May. The Bourges Gendarmerie created a unit called “bac-skimming” following an increase in the Cher region of this type of payment card fraud: “skimming” consists of electronically copying the information on the magnetic strip of a valid bank card onto another, new, card without the original cardholder being aware of it. The cloned cards are then used by the criminals to withdraw significant sums of money. The ring had also been active in Italy and the UK. (B.C.)