Two Romanians held in ATM skimming scam

MAPUSA: In one of the biggest crackdowns on an international skimming racket, Pernem police team on Saturday arrested two Romanian nationals following an interstate chase that spanned three days. The team led by police inspector (PI) Sandesh Chodankar arrested Emanoil Pioj and Vasile Loredan Sipos from a five-star hotel at Kolhapur in Maharashtra with the help of local police .




Police said that they recovered Rs 7 lakh in cash, 5 cellphones, 2 laptops, other foreign currencies, cash withdrawal slips and ATM cards of various Indian and foreign banks.

Pioj and Sipos has established contacts with the two Romanians arrested earlier in July by Goa police in a similar scam, police said. “The accused entered into criminal conspiracy to steal data of various banks by installing electronic devices and thereafter prepared forged ATM cards and withdrew money,” Chodankar told TOI.

On Wednesday, four to five cases of unauthorised withdrawals from accounts via an ATM of a nationalised bank were reported from Parsem, sources said. CCTV footage showed four masked men entering and exiting the ATM, Pernem police said.

Chodankar told TOI that six police teams were immediately assigned to patrol and check all ATMs in the jurisdiction of Pernem police for skimming devices.

Thursday midnight, one police team, led by PSI Sagar Dhatkar, observed two foreigners suspiciously entering and leaving an ATM in Morjim. Alerted to the presence of police, the foreigners took off in their car. Police chased them and managed to photograph the vehicle.

Police said a wireless message was immediately flashed, but despite nakabandi the accused remained untraceable. Friday morning, police traced the registration number to a car rental agency in Calangute. Investigation revealed that the car was rented by two foreigners staying in a hotel in Arpora.

When police arrived at the hotel, they learnt that the accused had checked out around 5am on Friday. However, the hotel’s CCTV footage helped identify the accused, police said, adding that their tracking revealed that the duo were headed to Kolhapur.

The team comprising Chodankar, police sub-inspectors (PSI) Praful Giri, Anant Gaonkar and Dhatkar, and police constables (PC) Anant Bahidkar, Rupesh Korgaonkar and Fatti Naik, left for Kolhapur on Friday morning and arrived there by midnight. They traced the accused to a five-star hotel there with the assistance of Kolhapur police.

“Tracking the accused was difficult and delayed as neither had the car owner taken any documents from the accused while renting the vehicle nor had the hotel filled the C form with police. Such lapses make our job difficult,” Chodankar told TOI.

Two Romanian nationals — Paul Daniel Vasil (35) and Costansio Caboo (40) — were arrested by Goa Police in July for allegedly trying to steal money from a ATM of a nationalised in Margao by installing a skimming device.