Brothers arrested for fraudulent ATM withdrawals

Mumbai: The Mumbai crime branch has busted a gang of thieves for targeting several gullible people by fraudulently withdrawing money from their accounts, using ATM machines. The two members of the gang arrested by the police are brothers. The officials said that the arrested accused would divert the attention of the person, right after they punched in the password by telling them that the ATM machine was not working.

The duo has been identified as Satendra Mishra (32) and his brother, Bhupendra (35), both residents of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. The unit 11 of the crime branch arrested them. They operated with two other persons, whose identities have been ascertained and a team of police officials have been sent to UP for nabbing them.

“The accused brothers would stay put in unguarded ATM kiosks with two machines. As soon as a customer would punch in their password, one of them, standing near the other machine would intervene and divert his attention, saying that the machine wasn’t working. The other person would then press the correction button in the first machine,” said an official. With the customer’s attention diverted, pressing the correction button would give them leeway time for completing the transaction without swiping the card again. After the customer left the kiosk, they would complete the transaction, withdrawing the money.

The accused came on the police’s radar after  customers lodged complaints for fraudulent withdrawals.