ATM fraudsters’ gang busted in Noida, 4 caught

NOIDA: A gang that cheated people by stealing their debit cards at ATM kiosks was busted by the Noida police on Friday, with the arrest of its four members.
The accused have been identified as Rakesh Diwakar, Manish, Rishabh Pandey and Pintu Yadav. While Rakesh and Manish are from Bisrakh, Rishabh and Pintu are residents of Noida Sector 63.
The arrests came in the wake of a complaint at the Badalpur police station on June 29. “The complainant claimed that he had gone to an ATM kiosk and inserted his card, but it got stuck inside the machine. Around the same time, a man entered the kiosk and offered to help him. Later he contacted the customer care and left the card in the machine and went home,” Yogendra Singh ACP-2 (central Noida), said.
A couple of hours later, the complainant started getting messages about shopping being done using his card and money being deducted from his bank account, police said. “A team was formed and the suspects were identified from the CCTV footage of the place where they had shopped. On Friday, the four were tracked down at Saddulapur railway crossing and arrested,” Singh said.
During interrogation, the accused told cops that one of the group members would enter an ATM kiosk and glue the area where the card is inserted. “Another member would stand in the queue outside the kiosk. When a customer enters the ATM and his card gets struck, the one standing outside enters in order to help him. He then gives the number of his accomplice as the helpline number to the target,” Singh said.
As soon as the victim would call the helpline number, the accused would tell them to press enter, clear and then the debit card PIN. “The accused standing inside the kiosk would read the PIN. The one on the phone would then tell the target that a technician would come in 2-3 hours ,” Elamaran G additional DCP (central Noida), said.
As soon as the victim would leave the kiosk, the accused would use tools to take out the card and use it for shopping and other purposes. “The accused have carried out over 25 such thefts across the state. This was the first such crime reported in Noida,” Elamaran said.
Meanwhile, the cyber cell of the Uttar Pradesh special task force (STF) has arrested a man who allegedly duped people by sending a fraud website links to increase credit card limit. “On June 4, we received a complaint where Vimal Saxena, a resident of Ghaziabad. Saxena lost Rs 1.13 lakh,” Rita Yadav, in-charge of the Cyber Crime police station, Noida, said.
Rohit Singh, the accused, was arrested from Rohtak in Haryana on Thursday.