THREE Bulgarian citizens were arrested last week in Thessaloniki with more than 233 copies of French credit cards.

So far the authorities have confirmed transactions with the cards involving $76 000 but suspect that the actual fraud is for more than $ 1.17 million.

The suspects, whose names had not been disclosed by authorities by mid-week, were arrested after Greek police kept automatic teller machines in Thessaloniki under surveillance for more than 10 weeks.

The Bulgarians were charged with multiple fraud, falsification, money laundering and organising a criminal group, Greek authorities said.

The money withdrawals were made from banks in Athens, Thessaloniki and several other Greek cities, using the original PIN codes of the cards.

According to the police, some of the owners of the credit cards had not even visited Greece in the period in which the withdrawals were made.

Thessaloniki police chief Christos Radopulos said authorities were trying to determine how the actual theft of the credit card information was done.

Radopulos, however, ruled out the involvement of computer hackers who stole the credit card numbers though the internet.

According to him, authorities were trying to determine whether any of the victims had visited Bulgaria recently.