Card-cloning racket kingpin arrested

THE MASTERMIND USED TO PAY ₹5,000 TO THE ACCUSED FOR EACH CUSTOMER’S DETAIL

MUMBAI: The Kherwadi police arrested a 25-year-old man for allegedly masterminding a card cloning racket, where hundreds of people have been duped.

According to police, six people have been arrested till now, including the accused Mohamed Rehan Khan, who was arrested last week. The other accused are Akram Shaikh 24, Faiz Chaudhari 28, Sarfaraz Shaikh, 23, Altaf Shaikh, 23 and Rahul Yadav, 22.

The gang, which used to steal credit/debit details of people and clone cards using skimmers, has withdrawn lakhs of rupees from people’s accounts. “Khan, who is the mastermind used to provide skimmers to other accused, who then stole the data from customers and gave it to Khan. He then withdrew the money and paid ₹5,000 to the accused for the stolen data of each customer,” said a police official.

The Kherwadi police recovered the skimmer, card reader and cloned cards from his residence. They also found a laptop in his possession with data of people whose money has been stolen.

The racket was busted in the first week of July with the arrest of a staffer working at a popular bakery in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC).

The staffer had leaked details of 35 people including foreigners, who had visited the bakery.