In 2003, three criminals were jailed for nine years following the largest Card Fraud Case in Europe with a publicised loss to Card Companies of £2.21 million. Find out how they were caught back then and how Big Data Technologies would have brought them to justice quicker. Steve Bradbury was the Prime Investigator and Evidence Provider which lead to the convictions using data from Floppy Discs!

2. Big Data to the Rescue: A Fraud Case Study

3. Steve Bradbury – Head of Fraud and Data Division
• Over 25 Years in Data
• Fraud/ Risk experience since 1992
• Fraud experience gained at American express (12 years), HSBC (5 years), Thomas cook (5 years) Consultancy (5 years).
• Roles – Head of Fraud, Chief Data Scientist, Head of Data and MIS EMEA, Senior Technical Manager, Fraud Investigator
• SME ACROSS INVESTIGATION/ INSIGHT ENGAGEMENTS SPECIALISING IN
FRAUD, DATA KNOWLEDGE, INSIGHT AND ANALYSIS, LEADERSHIP, CLIENT
FACING DEMONSTRATIONS/ ENGAGEMENT, ASSET TRACING, CORRUPTION,
LAW ENFORCEMENT, DATA ENRICHMENT, TECHNOLOGY.
• DEVELOPED SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHT AND REPORTING ACROSS CRIMINAL
AND TERRORISM NETWORKS USING CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGIES.
• RESEARCHED, PROPOSED AND DELIVERED INNOVATIVE TECHNICAL
SOLUTIONS.
• MULTIPLE GEOGRAPHICAL AND INDUSTRY EXPERIENCED – CARD, BANKING,
RETAIL, ONLINE GAMING, LAW ENFORCEMENT, GOVERNMENT,
INSURANCE, TELECOMS, DARK WEB, NATIONAL TRADING STANDARDS
SCAM CHAMPION, 419’S
• SUCCESSFUL INVESTIGATION OF LARGEST CARD FRAUD CASE IN
EUROPE (SEE MY SESSION AT 1500 IN THIS ROOM)
• DESIGN AND DELIVERY OF GLOBAL AML/ RISK REPORTING
• DESIGN AND ROLL OUT OF EUROPEAN FRAUD DECS
• REDESIGNED ALL FRAUD REPORTING FROM ANTIQUATED
MAINFRAME TO SQL
• DELIVER EXTENSIVE BI PROJECT TO AMEX JV (HARDWARE,
SOFTWARE, PEOPLE, REPORTING, DATA FEEDS)
• CREATED FIRST OF ITS KIND CUSTOMER CRISIS RECOVERY
PROGRAM

4. 30 minutes on Big Data?
We have 30 Minutes on ‘Big Data to the Rescue’
Never going to happen!
What I will do is talk you through the largest card fraud
case in Europe to date and cover how we reduce a 2
year investigation to 2 weeks.
I’m not a salesman and this is far from a sales pitch but
I am extremely passionate about Fraud.

5. Background
• IN 1999 THERE WAS A HUGE SPIKE IN COUNTERFEIT CARDS FRAUD VOLUMES, GOOD QUALITY COUNTERFEIT CARDS BEING
RETURNED AND LOSSES.
• THE CARDS WERE RETURNED TO AMEX FROM MULTIPLE INDUSTRIES AND THE MAG STRIPE WAS FULLY ENCODED WITH TRACK 1
AND 2 DATA.
• INITIALLY THERE WAS NO COMMON POINT OF COMPROMISE LINKING THE ACCOUNTS.
• AFTER SOME DETAILED INVESTIGATION USING BASE SAS I ESTABLISHED A HIGH PROPORTION OF THE CARDS HAD TRANSACTED AT
HEATHROW EXPRESS.
• POLICE INVOLVEMENT CAME SOON AFTER AS ALL CARD ISSUERS WERE HAVING THE SAME ISSUE.
• THE HEATHROW EXPRESS CONNECTION WAS STRONG ENOUGH FOR INVESTIGATION BY THE POLICE.
• JUST O GET TO THIS STAGE TOOK A YEAR!!!

6. Investigation
• IN 2002 POLICE INVOLVEMENT LEAD TO A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO HEATHROW EXPRESS.
• HEATHROW EXPRESS USED THE SERVICES OF CHECKLINE FOR ALL PAYMENT PROCESSING.
• CHECKLINE THEN PROVIDED ALL OF THERE PAYMENT FOR SEVERAL YEARS TO ME (IT TURNED UP IN BOXES OF 3.25 INCH FLOPPY DISCS)
• THEY SENT ME EVERYONE'S DATA!!!!!!!!!!
• UPON LOADING THE DATA INTO SAS I COULD SEE SUSPECT HAD STOLEN THE CRASH FILES
• (WHEN THEY TRANSMIT THE DATA AT THE END OF THE DAY TO THE BANKS IF THERE IS AN ISSUE A CRASH FILE WOULD BE CREATED
WITH ALL THE PAYMENT DATA WITHIN IT. HENCE IT DIDN’T APPEAR ON THE CUSTOMERS STATEMENT)
• ONCE WE HAD A DEFINITIVE LIST OF COMPROMISED CARDS WE COULD PROTECT OUR CUSTOMERS AND ALSO TRACE FRAUD SPEND
• THIS SHOWED HUGE QUANTITIES OF DISPOSABLE CONSUMABLES (CIGARETTES, PHONE CARDS).
• NEXT I BUILT FULLY AUDITABLE INVESTIGATION INFORMATION TRACKING COMPROMISE THROUGH SPEND FOR COURT EVIDENCE.
• ONE CARD ISSUERS EVIDENCE WAS USED IN COURT.

7. The Result
Credit card fraudster jailed
A security worker behind one of Britain's biggest credit card frauds has been jailed for
nine years.
By the time Sunil Mahtani, 26, and his partners in the fraud were caught, bank losses of
more than £2.21m. (Let’s times that by 10)
•Mahtani obtained information on 8,970 cards
•10% of the cards were cloned
•Bank losses totaled more than £2.21m
•It was estimated the fraud could have reached £20m
On Tuesday Mahtani was sentenced to nine years in prison
His partners in the fraud, Shaidal Rahim and Shahajan Miah, both 26, and from Enfield,
north London, also pleaded guilty to one of the conspiracy counts.
They were jailed for four years each.
These figures are wildly under reported.

8. How We Would Do It Now
OBVIOUSLY TECHNOLOGY HAS ADVANCED EXPONENTIALLY SINCE THE EARLY 2000’S
NOW WITH A SUITE OF POWERFUL BI AND INVESTIGATION TOOLS AVAILABLE –
TO NAME JUST A FEW –
THE GRSC DATA PLATFORM – NO DATA KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED AND RAPID DEPLOYMENT.
FIRE IT INTO HADOOP AND USE ORACLE’S DATA VISUALISATION DESKTOP – FOR STANDALONE DESKTOP USE THIS TOOL IS FREE.
SQL SERVER – ALSO FREE FOR DEV BUT YOU NEED TO KNOW YOUR DATA.
R ALSO FREE BUT YOU NEED TO KNOW THE DATA AND R

9. Top Tips Thinking Outside the Box
BI PROJECTS
360 DEGREE FEEDBACK
USE THE BEST TOOL FOR THE JOB
THE PHRASE ‘BIG DATA’ IS WAY OVERUSED
PROTECT YOURSELF FROM FRAUD
IF AN ATM DOESN’T LOOK RIGHT DON’T USE IT
NUMBER SPOOFING IS OUT THERE AND YOU COULD DO IT (NOT THAT YOU WOULD)
IF IT LOOKS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT USUALLY IS
THE DARK WEB ISN’T THAT SCARY IF YOU ARE CAREFUL (VERY CAREFUL)

10. Lets Stay In Touch
http://grscgroup.com/consulting-advisory/
PLEASE COME AND VISIT US AT OUR BOOTH.
- GRSC DATA PLATFORM
- FRAUD
- ANALYTICS
- AML/ KYC
- SOCIAL MEDIA
- COMPLIANCE
https://twitter.com/Steve_GRSC
https://twitter.com/GRSCGroup

11. I WELCOME YOUR QUESTIONS