Kingpin nabbed for cloning ATM cards

Special Task Force (STF) sleuths nabbed the mastermind of a gang duping innocent persons by cloning their ATM cards and hacking the data.

The miscreant, identified as Sumit Jhingran of Varanasi, had checked in at a hotel in Hazratganj. He owned up his crime. Police recovered three mobile sets and an Ipad from him. 

As per reports, the team of STF working on the case got a lead about the miscreant through an informer and raided the hotel. After checking the hotel logbook, the sleuths summoned Sumit and interrogated him. He was later brought at cyber police station in Lucknow.

During interrogation, Sumit disclosed that he had mastered the art of cloning of cards from Vicky when he was working with him at Yellow Pages company in the US. He described in detail the art and said he needed a skimmer (reading and writing device) and a laptop to clone an ATM. Sumit disclosed that he got the skimmer from a supplier in Coimbatore. As per his confession, he and his gang members used to contact waiters and employees of ritzy hotels in New Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana and West Bengal and provided them the skimmers. The customers paying their bills through the ATM cards were thus trapped when they used the swipe machine fitted with a skimmer. The miscreants later used the information to load a clone card and later used to withdraw the cash from the accounts of gullible customers.       

The STF started working on the case after it got a request letter from Assistant Inspector General, Cyber Cell, Chandigarh, to help in the probe into the case. The UP STF was also told that a case of ATM card cloning was registered with the SAS Nagar police and some of the miscreants involved in the crime were hiding in Lucknow.