Quartet arrested for trying to steal ATM details for fraud

Mumbai: The local crime branch (LCB) unit of the Thane (rural) police apprehended four people including three African nationals who installed dummy card swiping machines at several point of sales (PoS) terminals to extract data and pin numbers which they later used for fraudulent transactions. 

The police recovered cash worth two lakh from them. The police are probing the accused persons’ use of middlemen to convince certain shopkeepers who kept the PoS terminals. The accused have been handed over to the Mira Road police that is ascertaining the role of POS owners that allowed such illegalities. 

Based on information a LCB team led by PSI Srikant Karande under the supervision of Senior Police Inspector, Vyenkat Andhale and API Pramod Badakh laid a trap near Hotel Shubam in Mira road and arrested the cyber criminals identified as Kamal Usman Khan, Richard Ronald Maago (Nigeria), Hillary Esther Kegan (Kenya) and Sandrick Sam Daamba (Uganda). Apart from cash amounting more than two lakh, the LCB team recovered skimmers, laptop and scores of blank debit/credit cards from their possession. 

Explaining the modus operandi, PSI Karande said, “The accused with the help of middlemen offered lucrative incentives to install such card skimmers, which look similar to a Point of Sale (PoS) machine. Once a debit/credit card is swiped and the relevant amount and password entered, the machine displayed an error. The machine, by then copied the password and the data from the card’s magnetic strip.”

He said, “This data was later used to make duplicate cards and steal money. While one of the approached shopkeepers who suspected something fishy informed us, complicity of others where such machines were used cannot be ruled out.” The cards were used for withdrawals twice a little before and minutes past midnight.