The Central Crime Branch (CCB) officials have busted an inter-state duplicate credit and debit card racket and arrested three persons, including a Sri Lankan national, in this connection.
The prime accused Divyan (30), a Sri Lankan national, along with his associates Nawaz Shariff and Nadeem Shariff, used to buy stolen data of credit and debit cards, print the data on cards and swipe them at shopping centres.
The racket was busted when the trio visited a TV showroom at Doddakallasandra and purchased three LCD TVs for ₹1.10 lakh by swiping one of the duplicate cards. The owner filed a complaint based on which the CCB took up the investigation.
The CCB officials tracked down the trio, who were living in a rented apartment at Jalahalli in the city. They found 270 cards without magnetic tape, 114 duplicate credit and debit cards belonging to various banks, and 16 fake driving licences in their possession. They also recovered 36 card swiping machines, a card reader and lamination machines, which were used to create duplicate cards.
Police officials said the accused would also purchase swiping machines from the banks by submitting fake documents about the shops they owned and would swipe the duplicate cards to get the money. They said the accused also relied on some shopkeepers, who would swipe the duplicate cards for them. The accused would reportedly give them 20% of the total amount swiped as commission.
The police also said Divyan was wanted in several cases registered in many states, including Tamil Nadu. The Chennai police are waiting to get his custody for further questioning.