Police get five more skimming complaints

MOHALI: At the time when the cybercrime unit of Punjab Police has failed to make any headway in last week’s cases of fraudulently withdrawal of money after debit and credit cards were cloned, five new complaints surfaced on Friday.

A total of 61 complaints in this regard are waiting to be solved by the department. The cybercrime unit of Punjab Police received six complaints on Thursday and four on Wednesday. The stolen amount crossed Rs 20 lakh on Friday.

Meanwhile, the officials of the unit have said that there was a single gang behind all the incidents that were being reported across Tricity. “We have interrogated staff members and management of a microbrewery in Phase V where some of the cards were cloned a few days ago, however, nothing substantial has come up,” the cops said.

On Friday, the cybercrime unit received six new complaints. It was learnt that a total of Rs 35,000 was stolen from five different accounts.

“We received five complaints on Friday in which Rs 35,000 was withdrawn,” said Balwinder Singh, DSP, cybercrime unit of Punjab Police.

On August 2, the cybercrime unit received 11 complaints from the customers of different banks. A total of Rs 6 lakh was stolen from their accounts.

Four days later, an HDFC Bank’s branch gave the police a list of 31 persons, who became victims of card cloning frauds.

“We are working very hard. All the cases will be solved soon,” the DSP said.

“On Tuesday, we received two complaints in which money was withdrawn after cloning debit cards. In these two cases, cards were reportedly cloned at the microbrewery,” said Cybercrime unit station house officer Samarpal Singh.

“Apart from that, two more cases of debit fraud took place in 24 hours in the district. One of them took place in Kharar and the other in Zirakpur. Victims have lodged complaints with us alleging that they have lost thousands of rupees to fraudsters,” he added.

The station house officer said that the department was expecting the number of card cloning frauds to rise. “We have asked the banks to give us details of suspected transactions,” he said.