Suspected Turkish nationals clone cards, pilfer lakhs from

Suspected Turkish nationals have taken out lakhs of rupees from ATMs of a nationalised bank in Tripura by using cloning devices, the police said here on Monday.

It appeared that some devices had been installed in those ATMs to clone debit cards and fraudulently withdraw money.

The bank has received 45 complaints from customers in the last two days that their money was taken out from various ATMs in Agartala, State Bank of India Regional Manager Dibyendu Chowdhury said.

Additional Inspector-General of Police, Law & Order, Subrata Chakraborty said the cases were handed over to the Cyber Cell of the police department.

Superintendent of Tripura Police's Cyber Crime wing Sharmistha Chakraborty said as per preliminary investigations, some Turkish nationals had taken out lakhs of rupees of bank customers through the card-cloning devices.

"We are in the process of collecting complaints of bank customers from various police stations and bank branches to gather information. It is suspected that some Turkish nationals have stolen money from several ATMs and left Tripura for Kolkata. Investigation is on," Chakraborty said.