Pune: Two men arrested for withdrawing money from ATMs using cloned cards

Two men have been arrested for allegedly withdrawing money from ATMs using cloned ATM cards. The accused have been identified as Nnam Gabriel Chukwuebuka (35) and Bashir alias Lucas Williams (31). Both are Nigerian nationals.

According to a press release on Friday, an offence was lodged with the cyber police station of Pune City Police on April 28 in which unidentified persons had withdrawn Rs 1.1 lakh from a bank account through multiple ATM transactions over three days.

The original ATM card of the bank account holder was not used in this case, but still money was withdrawn from ATMs without the knowledge and consent of the bank account holder, police said.

– Stay updated with the latest Pune news. Follow Express Pune on Twitter here and on Facebook here. You can also join our Express Pune Telegram channel here.

While investigating the case, police found all transactions in this case happened at the ATM centre in Kasarwadi between 6 am and 8 am, police said.

So, a police team comprising two constables and the complainant laid a trap outside this ATM centre on Thursday morning. The accused, Nnam Gabriel Chukwuebuka, was arrested while trying to withdraw money using cloned ATM cards, police said.

During searches, the police recovered four ATM cards from his possession of which two were cloned cards. One of the cloned cards carried the PIN of the complainant’s ATM card. The second cloned card also carried a PIN of another person’s ATM card, police said.

During further investigation, police identified accused Bashir, who was providing the cloned cards to Nnam, police said. Bashir was then arrested from a hotel in Rahatani area. At least ten ATM cards, an ATM card reader, a CD carrying a software and other material were recovered from Bashir, police said.

The accused was stealing PINs and other ATM card information of people by installing skimmer devices and cameras at ATM centres, police said. Using this information, the accused allegedly prepared cloned ATM cards and used them to withdraw money from ATMs, police said.

Senior Inspector D S Hake of cyber police station said, “Accused Bashir is a history-sheeter who was earlier arrested in similar cases. He is known to be residing in India for the past few years after coming here on a business visa. Accused Nnam earlier came to India on a student visa. But now he is also suspected to be on a business visa. The accused kept shifting their locations. Nnam was currently residing at Pimple Nilakh while Bashir was arrested from a hotel. A court has remanded them to our custody till May 2 for further investigation.”

The accused have been booked under sections 419, 420, 465, 467, 471 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Information Technology Act.