Four Chinese nationals suspected of ATM skimming fraud have been arrested here and police have recovered Rs 2.3 million and 350 ATM cards from their possession, in the latest incident involving Chinese citizens.
Clifton Superintendent Police Dr Asad Malhi said the police acted on information regarding suspicious activities of a group of Chinese men in Defence Phase-II area on Saturday night and arrested the three men. However, two other accomplices managed to escape.
One suspect linked with the group was later arrested yesterday on information provided by the three men, DawnNews reported.
Malhi said the group appears to be a part of an organised gang which employs young Chinese men for skimming frauds. The suspects were handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), he said.
A skimming device was seized from the arrested suspects, as well as Rs 2.3 million stolen from ATMs of different banks, a police official said.
The incident takes the number of Chinese men arrested this week in relation to ATM skimming frauds in Karachi to six.
Earlier in the week, two Chinese men were arrested for allegedly planting a skimming device at a Habib Bank Ltd ATM in Zainab Market while another was arrested on Saturday in Bahadurabad.
The criminals used skimmers to capture banking data off debit and credit cards.
Skimmers are physical devices that are installed over the actual ATM card slots that read the data of the magnetic strips.
In March last year, two Chinese nationals were arrested by a Pakistani law enforcement agency for ATM skimming fraud.
Pakistan has witnessed a rapid increase of Chinese nationals in the country in recent years due to many Beijing- funded infrastructure development projects and joint ventures under the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Some Chinese expatriates, however, have been found involved in criminal activities such as fighting and fraud, Pakistani media reports said in December.
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