Six arrested for ATM fraud

With the arrest of six people, two of them hailing from Uttar Pradesh, the city police claimed to have busted an ATM card racket that targeted bank customers and siphoned off money from their accounts.

Among the arrested is a man who claimed to work as a film production manager, police said.

Addressing a news conference last evening, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Mukund Hatote said acting on a tip-off, a Crime Branch team laid a trap at Naigaon on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway on May 10 and arrested the accused.

Upon interrogation of the arrested persons, it was revealed they engaged in hacking ATM machines, stealing PIN codes and siphoning off money from accounts of bank customers, he said.

They kept a watch at ATM centres, and under the pretext of helping customers wanting to withdraw money, stole their PIN codes which they later fraudulently used to take out cash, Hatote said.

All the accused were booked under IPC sections related to cheating and criminal breach of trust. According to a conservative estimate, the gang had duped account holders to the tune of Rs 10 lakh to 12 lakh, he said.

The gang operated in several areas of Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai, he said, adding 13 debit cards of different banks were seized from the accused.

Those arrested were identified by the police Santosh Omprakash Giri (38), Aftab Jahir Alam Khan (28, Kaesh Yadav (27), Vijay Pandey (48), Alok Singh (30) and Ahmed Hussain Khan (24).

Giri and Aftab Khan hailed from different districts of Uttar Pradesh, where they faced multiple cases related to ATM fraud, the police officer said.

In Mumbai, Giri used to work as a film production manager, Hatote said.