Three of cybercrime gang arrested in Gandhidham

Rajkot: Three men from Bihar, believed to be members of a gang involved in cybercrimes, were arrested by the team of Gandhidham special operations group (SOG) in Kutch on Saturday.
Police said that the accused were members of a gang that was active in multiple states. The accused used ATM/debit card details of individuals for online purchases like airline and train tickets. They also had tie-ups with travel agents in different cities who used the ATM/debit card details provided by the accused to book tickets for their customers at discounted rates, police said.

The accused, identified as Chotelal Singh, 22, Amrendrakumar Ramsakal Singh, 24, and Premkumar Prabhunath Chauhan, 20, all residents of Gopalganj in Bihar, had been active in Gandhidham since last couple of months. The gang members were busted after they used debit card details of a Gandhidham-based chartered accountant to make online purchase of Rs 50,000 recently.

The SOG recovered eight mobile phones, 17 SIM cards and ATM/debit card details of top banks like SBI, HDFC, Axis and ICICI.

The accused used to go to different ATMs during evening time when most people withdraw cash. “While pretending to be standing in queue, they would note the debit card number and expiry date when individuals were withdrawing the cash. They would also note the PIN by noting the movement of his hands, said Kutch (east) SOG police inspector H L Rathod.

After getting detail of the debit cards they used to open fake accounts on various e-commerce and travel sites and book travel tickets by opting for transactions using ATM pin of debit card, he added.

“Since big banks like SBI and HDFC have first eight digits of 16-digit debit card number common, the accused had to memorise only last eight digits,” said Rathod.

He further explained, “The gang members also had tie-ups with travel agencies in Ghaziabad, Allahabad and in cities of Bihar, who booked the tickets of their customers using debit card details given by the accused. The accused used to get 60% commission on each booking.”

Investigation further revealed that every day Rs 10,000- Rs 12,000 got credited into accounts of the accused. “Only after further probe can we say how much money these accused have stolen from different persons using their debit card details,” said Rathod, adding that they were verifying all the applications that they have received in last couple of days.

It is also suspected that the accused used spy cameras to capture the details of the debit cards of individuals. Police has asked various banks for CCTV footage of their ATMs.