Two Ukraine nationals arrested for ATM fraud, 137 cloned cards seized

Two Ukraine nationals were arrested for allegedly duping people by cloning ATM cards, police said on Friday.

A total 137 cloned cards, cash Rs 4,05,500, and four slips containing the serial numbers of cards and their passwords were recovered, a senior police officer said.

The accused were identified as Mykhailo Lukianoe (26) and Maksym Dorofeiev (30), they said.

"On Wednesday, we received specific inputs regarding suspicious transaction by some foreign nationals at an ATM kiosk near Tagore Garden Metro Station and apprehended two of them from the spot," said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Sameer Sharma.

During interrogation, the accused revealed that they along with their other four associates also from Ukraine had stolen the data of ATM cards from different countries and later cloned those over the plastic cards meant to be used in hotels and gift cards, he added.

After collecting sufficient data and completion of cloning process, the gang members used to flew to different countries on tourist visa to withdraw cash. After withdrawing cash they convert the local currency into Dollar or Euro and return to their country, the officer said.

On November 9, they arrived in India and since then were withdrawing cash from the ATMs of State Bank of India. It was their sixth visit to India with the same purpose, the officer added.

They stay in different hotels and withdraw money from nearby State Bank of India ATMs during late hours. After withdrawing the cash, they got the same converted in Euro or Dollars. They used to keep the money in their body while passing through the immigration, the police said.

Raids are being conducted to nab their remaining associates, police said, adding investigation is underway to find out the source of data related to cloned cards.