Six arrested in ATM card cloning case

With the arrest of six men including a foreign national, Mumbai police claimed to have busted a gang which allegedly 'cloned' debit or credit cards and withdrew money from ATMs or used the card details for shopping.

The gang was involved in at least 40 offences registered in Mumbai and neighbouring areas, Deputy Commissioner of Police Dilip Sawant said Friday.

The Crime Branch of city police started tracking down the gang after a resident of Nagpada here filed a complaint that unidentified persons withdrew Rs 2.16 lakh from her son's bank account between June 7 to 11 this year.

Her son, who works in merchant navy, was aboard a ship off the Greece coast during this period, the woman said.

The Crime Branch found that money had been withdrawn from ATMs in Mumbai, and the culprits had also done some shopping in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra using details of the cards possessed by the woman's son.

It led to arrest of Kasturiram Solanki (30), a shop owner in Ratnagiri, DCP Sawant said.

It was followed by arrest of Madankumar Sundesa (33) and Chandansing Rao (23) from Rajasthan, Ramesh Chandran (31) from Tamil Nadu, Dipak Gehlot (33) from Thane and Colovolo Hakim Alias Ayo Rafiu Audigun (48), a national of an African country.

Hakim was allegedly involved in similar offences in Mumbai earlier, the DCP said.

Police recovered 10 mobile phones, four laptops, 97 cloned debit and credit cards, two card readers, a point of sale 'skimmer' (which copies card details) and a data collector device, the official said.

Other members of the gang had purchased data of hundreds of bank account holders from Hakim, he said.

The data was used to create "cloned" (duplicate) debit and credit cards, Sawant said.

Ramesh Chandran was the main accused who allegedly also provided his technical expertise to other gangs involved in similar crimes, the DCP said.

The data collector device seized from the accused is used to collect details of debit or credit cards when they are swiped by customers for payment at shops, hotels or petrol pumps, he said.

The gang is estimated to have cheated people of around Rs two crore in various offences, Sawant said.

A court here on Friday sent them in police custody till October 17, and further probe is on, he said.