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Jakarta Police have arrested three people believed to be part of a sophisticated credit card fraud ring that allegedly swindled US and European nationals.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said on Thursday that two men, identified only as WL and OL, were arrested as they were leaving the Carrefour supermarket at Blok M Square shopping center in South Jakarta.

Later, a woman, identified as ER, was arrested at her home on Jalan Kartini in Central Jakarta. Boy added that police were searching for a fourth suspect.

The Jakarta Police’s chief detective for monetary crimes, Adj. Sr. Comr. Firman, said the suspects installed skimmers on credit card processing devices at nightclubs and restaurants in Bali.

“The suspects were purposely targeting foreigners because of their high credit limits,” Firman said.

“We believe they were collaborating with insiders at restaurants and nightclubs. We are still questioning employees,” he added. Police had been monitoring the group since last month.

Boy said that police had seized a number of skimming devices, Rp 19 million ($2,100) in cash and 266 bogus credit cards.

He said the suspects had used the devices to steal information from actual cards, which was then embedded on the bogus cards. However, he did not clarify whether the bogus cards seized by officers held information from actual cards or were empty cards that were intended for later encoding.

The fake cards were used by the suspects to purchase goods at a string of supermarkets.

“The suspects deliberately chose popular supermarkets with long queues at the checkouts. The cashiers were too busy to notice the appearance of the cards,” Boy said. “The items bought were mostly electronics that could be easily resold.”

The three suspects could be charged under the 2008 Law on Electronic Information and Transaction as well as the Criminal Code’s Article 263 on forgery and Article 362 on theft.

Separately, Max Charles, coordinator of the Indonesian Credit Card Association (AKKI), urged people to be more cautious when using their cards.

“Bank Indonesia has ordered all banks to start using microchips in their credit cards,” Max said, adding that the technology offered more security than existing magnetic cards, which were easier to duplicate.

Sri Suparni, deputy director of accounting and payment systems at the central bank, said the new technology should have been implemented in 2008 but was delayed because banks and retailers had not been properly prepared.

Visa International and Mastercard, the two major international credit card service providers, list Indonesia as the world’s second-worst country for credit card fraud.