Offshore credit cards protect your privacy

Recent events in Korea are a timely reminder of the need to retain privacy in our increasingly big brother dominated world. As reported recently in Offshore News the USA is not too happy about offshore casinos either. The only way to protect yourself from being caught up in these sort of dragnets is to use an offshore credit card. That way, when your local police subpoena credit card records from banks, your name won't show up as one of the criminals committing the heinous crime of gambling offshore!

Police Arrest 13,000 Internet Gamblers

By Bae Keun-min
Staff Reporter

Police have caught about 13,000 people who habitually visit overseas Internet gambling sites, including a diplomat and a national university professor.

Using credit cards, they spent an estimated 12 billion won at some 50 gambling sites, according to police.

Of the suspects, police requested an arrest warrant for seven suspects on charges of habitual gambling, while 26 others, including a diplomat, identified as Kim, 41, were booked without physical detention.

The suspects subscribed to the sites and spent 12 billion won playing around 50,000 games.

Kim, a diplomat, is suspected of using credit cards 122 times, racking up 30 million won in total payments.

A national university professor, identified as Hong, 62, utilized his plastic cards 382 times to pay for his 26 million won worth of gambles on the Internet.

Of the seven facing imminent arrest, Yu, a 49-year-old unemployed man, squandered more than 100 million won.

Another suspect identified as Kang, 32, input her sibling’s credit card number, spending 100 million won on cyber gambling, forcing her sibling to be listed as a credit delinquent, police said.

``The suspects range in age from around 30 to 70. We have selected people who spent more than 25 million won or paid more than 100 times, to face criminal charges,’’ police said.

Police estimated a total of 100 billion won had been leaked offshore due to gambling, including an estimated 25 billion won through online gambling.

Police have asked the Ministry of Information and Communication to shut the detected sites.

``We’re seeing a rising number of cases where South Koreans register at overseas gambling sites under a foreigners’ name. It’s hard to control gambling sites registered abroad,’’ police said.