Mumbai: The recent card cloning racket busted by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch has once again highlighted the importance of ensuring defunct debit and credit cards are disposed of correctly, as the accused ran the racket using discarded debit and credit cards.
Earlier this month, the Crime Branch’s Property Cell had arrested six people in connection with the pan-India racket, which involved cloning credit and debit cards of foreign nationals using stolen data. These were then used to transfer money from their accounts. The police recovered 65 cloned cards from the accused, besides 51 Point Of Sale (POS) machines used to swipe the cards.
An officer who is part of the investigation said, “We interrogated the accused to find out how they always seemed to have a large number of cards readily available for cloning. They said every debit or credit card discarded in Mumbai was a potential tool for them. They had arrangements with scrap dealers all over the city, who would provide them with discarded cards on which the magnetic strip, a key part of any card, was intact.” Another officer added, “Not just scrap dealers, the accused would even keep an eye out for inactive or defunct cards discarded on the streets, and use them to clone the cards of their targets.”
Black market tech
The police said with the kind of technology available on the black market, including for cloning cards, and card details being sold by hackers, following the proper procedure to get rid of defunct cards is important.
Superintendent of Police (Cyber Crime) Balsing Rajput said, “The best way to dispose of a defunct card is to shred it using a shredding machine, as it ensures the card is destroyed. If it can’t be shredded, it should at least be cut into two pieces across the magnetic strip.”
Mr. Rajput added that many users fail to follow this basic method, not realising that they might be providing tools for scamsters.
He said, “There are many gangs that operate on the internet, obtaining details of customers by hacking and then selling them to gangs for card cloning and other such offences.”
The prime accused in the case, Zuber Sayyed (40), is believed to have made between ₹20 crore and ₹30 crore over five years, operating out of his apartment in Mira Road. “He would clone cards using stolen details, then use POS machines obtained from all over India to make fraudulent transactions from his targets’ accounts. The machines would be used only once or twice before being returned to shopkeepers they were borrowed from,” an officer said.