Gang of ATM fraudsters busted in JK's Samba, 1 held

Police today claimed to have arrested a member of an inter-state gang allegedly involved in swapping original ATM cards with fake ones and withdrawing money from people's bank accounts in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district.

Dinesh Kumar was arrested yesterday by policemen dressed in civilian clothes who were deployed around the ATM machines in Samba, following many reports of frauds of similar nature in the last couple of months.

Police also recovered 18 ATM cards of different banks from Kumar's possession.

"The accused was arrested from a Punjab National Bank ATMnear Gas Agency, Samba, when he was trying to dupe one person, namely Kaka Ram, who went there to withdraw cash," a police official said.

During questioning, Kumar disclosed the gang's modus operandi in which they offered help to customers in withdrawing money and then, after secretly noting their password, the gang fraudulently swapped the ATM cards of the customers with some other cards of the same colour and bank, the official said.

"Later on, they used the ATM card to withdraw money from the accounts of the customers," he said.

"A case has been registered against the accused in Samba police station under relevant sections," he said, adding that the police was on the lookout for other gang members.