Youth arrested for cloned-card fraud

MUMBAI: The crime branch arrested a youth in a credit card fraud case on Saturday. The accused had cloned the card of a USbased account holder and used it to shop at a mall in Kandivli.
The police said the crime came to light when cashier at the mall got suspicious over the way the accused, Arjun Sharma , was splurging on expensive electronic items.After buying two mobiles and a laptop, collectively worth Rs 1.5 lakh, when Sharma returned to purchase a TV worth Rs 1.5 lakh, the cashier suspected something was amiss. Sharma, however , did not buy the TV. After he left, the cashier called up the bank from where the credit card was issued and learnt that card had been cloned as it was registered in someone else’s name. He then informed the police about it.
Crime branch unit-11 arrested Sharma for the interrogation and on Tuesday, handed him over to the Kandivli police for further inquiry. Sharma has confessed to the crime and said he was “lured in the business” by his Nigerian neighbour at Mira Road who had promised him “good commission after a purchase” . The police suspect that the Nigerian, who is now wanted, could be the part of an international card fraud syndicate that procured the details of the card belonging to the original card-holder . The Nigerian cloned the card with the help of the stolen data, the police said.
Sharma, who is from Rajasthan , came to the city a few days ago. The Nigerian approached him with a “business plan”.
A crime branch officer said, “The Nigerian apparently claimed that he would buy goods in the city and sell them in foreign countries for a profit.”