3 from Odisha nabbed for cloning ATM cards

Three persons from Odisha, involved in cloning of debit and credit cards belonging to customers at restaurants, were taken into custody by the Cyberabad cyber crime police on Tuesday. The three had illegally withdrawn `13 lakh using the cloned cards.

On March 5, a complaint was lodged by the branch manager of HDFC Bank at Gachibowli stating two of its customers have complained about fraudulent withdrawal of money from their accounts without their knowledge. Police registered a case and started a probe. They arrested accused Praful Kumar Nayak, 25, Hemanth Kumar, 28, and Sujit Kumar Nayak, 31, all residents

Cyberabad DCP (Crime)

of Madhapur and natives of Mohasayipentho village in Odisha.

Praful, who used to take up jobs at restaurants, learnt how to skim and clone debit and credit cards through a friend in Odisha. He practised cloning by purchasing a skimmer and reader/writer machine before he started withdrawing money using cloned cards. Praful has been cloning cards since December

2017. He subsequently roped in his friends Hemanth for skimming and Sujith for withdrawing cash from ATMs.

“Prime accused Praful always quit his job at a restaurant and pub within 10 days of getting employed. He would change his residence frequently to avoid being caught. The cloning gang has so far collected data of 150 customers belonging to 31 national and international banks, and have withdrawn at least `13 lakh,” said Cyberabad DCP (Crime) Rohini Priyadarshini.

The cyber crime team recovered from the accused `10.1 lakh in cash, one skimmer, a cloning machine, two laptops, 44 cloned cards and six phones. All the three have been produced before a court for judicial remand.