Police bust card cloning racket, arrest nine

CHENNAI: The city police on Saturday busted a credit and debit card cloning racket that targeted techies frequenting two eateries in Taramani and arrested nine men working at the two places.




The racket, which was allegedly ‘run’ from Kolkata, involved stealing the details of cards used at the two eateries and the victims, all software engineers, lost about Rs 20 lakh, police said.

Police seized a laptop, a skimmer, mobile phones, debit cards, EDC equipment and Rs 1.48 lakh in cash before a court sent Suresh Kumar, 23, of West Delhi, Sudhir, 24, of West Tripura, and Bikash Kumar, 22, Kundan Kumar, 22, Rambir Kumar, 22, Rahul Singh, 20, Kundan Singh, 24, Vipin Kumar, 20, and Rahul Kumar, 22, all from Bihar, to the Puzhal prison.

Inspector Meena Priya of the central crime branch’s bank fraud wing said they received complaints from many software engineers who claimed large sums of cash had been withdrawn from their accounts despite their credit/debit cards being in their possession.

“Subsequent investigations revealed that the victims, employed in different companies at SP IT City on MGR Salai in Taramani, all used their cards at ‘Juice-It’ and ‘Shaan-e-Punjab’ on the premises,” she said.

Police then questioned workers at the two establishments and picked up nine of them.

During interrogation, the men admitted to stealing the details of credit/debit cards, including PIN, of the techies with the help of a skimmer and transferring them to an ‘agent’ in Kolkata before the cards were cloned. The commission for passing on the vital information was deposited in their bank accounts.

So far, the arrested men told investigators, they had helped clone more than 150 cards that were then used to withdraw more than Rs 20 lakh in cash from ATM kiosks in Kolkata as well as to purchase home appliances and other commodities in the two cities.

Inspector Meena Priya said, “We will soon approach a court to take the arrested men into custody to inquire if they had any links with credit card racketeers who had earlier been arrested by the city police. We will also question them to see if any accomplices are still active in the city.”

A team of the CCB’s bank fraud wing would soon leave for Kolkata to apprehend the agent and all those who helped prepare credit and debit cards using the details shared by the arrested suspects, she added.