3 more arrested in ATM fraud racket

Puducherry: CB-CID sleuths on Sunday

arrested

three more accused in connection with the ATM fraud and skimming

racket

and seized and recovered properties worth more than Rs 1crore from their possession. The arrested were identified as A Peter, 38 from Tirupur, S Dhinesh, 33 from Coimbatore and Irfan Rahman, 33 from Kolathur, Chennai.

The trio confessed to committing the crime with the help of the prime accused R Chandruji, 28, an expelled AIADMK follower from Puducherry. The three received details of stolen international credit cards online and point of sale (PoS) machines from Chandruji.

They made fake credit cards using the magnetic strip reading machines (MSRs) with the stolen credit card details. They used the fake cards to book air tickets online. They also swiped the cards through PoS machines and duped several lakh of rupees. They paid commission to Chandruji for such transactions.

Inquiries also revealed that Dhinesh was involved in similar crime investigated by the cyber crime cell, Coimbatore. CBCID sleuths recovered Rs 2 lakh cash, one laptop and five credit cards from Peter, an indigo car from Dhinesh and an Audi car, four laptops, passbooks and chequebooks of private and nationalized banks from Irfan Rahman. The CBCID sleuths have so far arrested 11 people involved in the crime and recovered and seized movable and immovable properties worth more than Rs 60 lakh.

The modus operandi of the gang was to fix skimmer machines and secret cameras at ATM centres and collect information of the ATM cards and its pin numbers of the people using the ATMs. The gang members would then create duplicate ATM cards through MSR machines and withdraw money from the cardholders’ bank accounts using the duplicate cards. They also transfered money from the cardholders’ accounts to their accounts by swiping the duplicate cards on the PoS machines in their possession.

The Police booked them under Sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 379 (punishment for theft) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the IPC and Section 66-C of the Information technology act, 2000.


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