According to the Australian Federal Police more than 1,200 fake credit cards were used between March and June to obtain a vast haul of goods including sound systems, flat panel TV's iPods, notebooks and netbooks.
The scam came to light after the AFP arrested twenty-three people in Sydney, Melbourne, and Spain with police admitting that between$5 and $6 million dollars worth of goods were purchased in that period.
Police say Australia is a favoured target for criminal syndicates because shops accept a signature as identification instead of a pin number. Signatures are now being replaced by pin number identification across Europe.
In recent days security officials at several mass retailers have been approached to supply surveillance footage of the thieves purchasing goods. They have also confirmed that several specialist retailers were hit by the thieves.
The AFP said that the group had manufactured and distributed more than 200 fake credit cards a week and that they had carried out 11 raids, in Sydney and Melbourne this week and seized several credit card making systems.
Card identification used in the transactions were obtained using skimmers attached to ATM machines said the AFP.
Among those arrested was 53-year-old Tony Hancock from Homebush Bay, in western Sydney, who police say was running the syndicate.
Hancock allegedly obtained credit card numbers stolen from people in Australia, Spain, the UK and Malaysia using skimming machines at ATMs and online.
