ATM card cloners’ gang busted, three arrested
LUCKNOW: The cyber cell of the Lucknow police on Thursday busted a gang of debit/ credit card cloners and arrested three people who had fraudulently withdrawn about R 1 crore from several ATMs by using cloned cards.
The gang was operating out of a restaurant at Mithaiwala crossing in Gomti Nagar.
Cops also recovered a skimming machine, an ATM card data reader used for copying data of debit and credit cards and a diary having hundreds of four-digit pin codes of ATM cards.
Those arrested have been identified as Chand Prakash Rai, a resident of Police Lines, Ghazipur (whose father is a cop posted with CB-CIB, Faizabad), Shivam Pandey, a native of Sheetalganj, Nawabganj and Sohrab Khan, a native of Faizabad.
Chand Prakash Rai worked as head waiter at the restaurant, Shivam Pandey was a waiter while Sohrab Khan was the cook.
The miscreants had procured the skimmer (card cloner) from one Jawed in Bangalore, who is yet to be arrested. It may be pointed out that sale of skimmer is banned in India.
Of late, the cyber cell of Lucknow police had received a large number of complaints about withdrawal of cash from ATMs fraudulently, without knowledge of the bonafide owner of the card. “We received a large number of complaints about withdrawal of cash using debit and credit cards without knowledge of their owners,” senior superintendent of police, Rajesh Pandey, told newsmen on Thursday evening.
“During probe it came to light that all victims had once dined at this particular restaurant in Gomti Nagar. Working on this lead, cops raided the restaurant on Thursday,” Pandey said.
When the investigating team quizzed waiter Shivam Pandey, he spilled the beans.
“Sohrab Khan is the master mind behind the crime. He procured the ATM card cloning machine from Jawed of Bangalore,” informed the SSP.
“Whenever a customer made a payment at the restaurant using his ATM card, one of the two waiters swiped the card in the skimming machine before handing it over at the billing counter for payment,” informed the SSP. Sohail, another cook at the restaurant, who is yet to be arrested, carried this skimming machine every month to Bangalore by a flight. From there, Jawed used to carry this machine to Mumbai for preparing cloned debit/ credit cards. With the help of these cloned cards, the miscreants withdrew cash from various ATMs across the city.