SINGAPORE - A 27-year-old man has been arrested for suspected possession of cloned payment cards and equipment for making cloned cards.

The police said on Friday that they had received a report on Feb 7 that a cloned metal card was used to make a withdrawal at an automated teller machine. The name of the bank was not revealed.

After follow-up investigations, Commercial Affairs Department officers established the identity of the man and arrested him on Feb 16.

The police said the man is believed to have copied the card details from the magnetic stripes of more than 60 original payment cards and later encoded them into blank metal cards which he had bought online.

The man is also believed to have removed and transferred the Europay, Mastercard and Visa chips to the blank metal cards.

A laptop, two notebooks, an assortment of blank metal cards, an engraving machine, a card encoder, a point-of-sale reader machine and some cloned metal payment cards were seized, the police added.

A person found guilty of possessing machines and equipment which, to their knowledge, has been specifically designed or adapted for the making of any false instrument can be jailed for up to five years, fined, or both.

Those found guilty of possessing a forged valuable security could face up to 15 years’ jail and a fine.

The police said they take a serious view of any person who may be involved in the production and possession of cloned payment cards, and perpetrators will be dealt with in accordance with the law.