A Russian man has been taken into police custody for damaging equipment at an automated teller machine (ATM) in Vietnam in an attempt to steal customer data.

Authorities in Nha Trang – the capital city of Khanh Hoa Province – have held Leksii Vackvasaki on criminal charges of ‘deliberate destruction of property’ and theft, Nguyen Hong Ky, head of the local police department, said on Saturday.

At around 2:30 am on the same day, officers received reports that a foreigner was breaking the shield of an ATM in Nha Trang owned by Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank).

The man rapidly fled the scene when police arrived.

During a citywide patrol, they found a backpack-carrying foreign suspect at a hotel and brought him to the police station.

He identified himself as Leksii Vackvasaki, a 36-year-old tourist in Vietnam, and admitted he had covered the security camera at the ATM with adhesive tape before using a screwdriver from the backpack to forcibly lever the shield open.

Vackvasaki connected his laptop with the automated teller machine in order to steal the card data of customers who had made transactions here, and other information.

Police officers are clarifying his true motive, but they said the Russian must have intended to sell the information to a foreign organization.

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