POLICE on Tuesday presented four suspects allegedly engaged in the production and distribution of fake Smart Communication prepaid mobile phone cards, GMA Network television reported.

Caught during a sting operation were Rhea Rose, Evangeline De Leon, Rafaelita Cruz, and John Cabbigat who were said to be delivering about 300,000 prepaid cards, said to be worth millions of pesos, to different areas in Metro Manila.

In an interview on GMA-7’s «24 Oras» early evening news program, Chief Superintendent Arturo Lomibao of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said this was the first recorded case of the production and distribution of fake prepaid cards in country.

He warned that many more of the fake cards may have already been distributed throughout Metro Manila.

The fake prepaid cards look very much like original prepaid cards except for noticeably dull colors and the use of a non-reflective compound for the strip on the card that is scratched out to reveal a unique numeric code, GMA-7.

A prepaid mobile phone user uses the unique code to secure additional text messaging and call credits.

The codes printed on the fake cards do not match codes found on Smart’s computer network, leading to numerous complaints from prepaid users who could not load credits after using the fake cards, Smart said.

Most of the fake cards seized were for 300 pesos worth of phone credits.

One of the suspects, Cabbigat said that the fake cards came from China and he was a courier for the distribution. He said they were to have delivered an additional 800,000 counterfeit cards to various locations in the Philippines

Cabbigat said he was just a courier and that he did not know that the cards were fake.

Ramon Isberto, spokesperson for Smart Communications, said Smart was working with the Philippine National Police to uncover the groups behind the distribution and selling of fake prepaid cards.

«It’s a big problem that the company wants to curb,» he said.