ATM fraud: 3 Romanian nationals sent to five-day police custody

A district court on Thursday sent three Romanian nationals, accused of cheating people by cloning their automated telling machine (ATM) cards, to five-day police custody. The foreigners allegedly withdrew over ₹27 lakh by cloning more than 88 ATM cards.

They have been identified as Catanescu Catalin (41), Duica Bogdan Nicolae (28), and Ciobanu (44). The crime branch of Jaipur police, led by deputy commissioner of police Vikas Pathak, arrested them from Delhi on Wednesday.

Of the three accused, Duica came to India in October 2017, Catenescu in December 2017 and Ciobanu in February 2018. Duica visited Mumbai and Agra before coming to Jaipur, whereas other two came to Jaipur from Delhi, a police official said.

Police have recovered five cloned ATM cards, a card reader, hotspot, spy camera, microchip, laptop, some masks, four mobile phones and a cash of around ₹50 lakh from their possession, the official added.

Explaining the modus operandi, the official said that the accused used to identify an ATM with big footfall. Early morning, they would install a skimming device and camera in the ATM to get the card details and password. They would collect the details in evening. They would then use the details to clone ATM card and withdraw money from the bank accounts.

On February 25, a number of people, especially from Mahesh Nagar area in Jaipur, approached police and complained of transactions from their back accounts. The commissioner of police asked crime branch to take over the case. The number of complaints increased to around 90 by February 27. The accused made all transaction from Delhi. On February 25, they withdrew more than ₹17 lakh from bank accounts of around 25-30 people. The transactions started from 11am and continued till 9pm. “The accused are experts and probably would have done such acts in other countries too,” the official said. He said the case was cracked in coordination with more than 10 banks. “On the basis of CCTV footages, we traced one of the cabs hired by the accused, which gave us pick and drop location and a breakthrough in the investigation,” the official added.

The teams in Delhi were tracking locations and two cheats were arrested with cash on Wednesday, he said. Later, their partner in the crime was also arrested from a flat with equipment, the official added