Four held for ATM frauds

Four cheats who duped hundreds of people at ATMs on the pretext of helping them use their debit cards to fraudulently withdraw money from their accounts to the tune of Rs 1 crore have been arrested, police said on Wednesday.

The accused identified as Vikas, 25, Asif, 26, Gopal, 28 and Jameel, 26 are residents of Kapashera, Najafgarh and Bijwasan in west Delhi, and have duped many senior citizens, children and illiterate persons unsure of using debit cards across 300 ATMs in the city.

Police teams on Tuesday night arrested Jameel and Gopal from Uttam Nagar in west Delhi following a tip off, said Deputy Commissioner of Police Surender Kumar, adding Vikas and Asif were arrested on February 16 after they came to illegally withdrawal money from two ATMs at Dwarka area.

"The accused have confessed their involvement in more than 300 incidents of ATM card frauds. The kingpin, Vikas told police that he wanted to live a lavish life and later formed his own gang with his accomplices Asif, Gopal and Jameel," said Surender Kumar.

Explaining their technique, he said: "They used to target old, aged, illiterate persons, women and children who visited ATMs to withdraw money. They offered help to the victims in transactions in using to swap their ATM cards and changed them with duplicate another one of the same bank."

"They easily obtained the PIN number of the victims' cards and later withdrew money from their accounts," Kumar said.

--IANS

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