A fraud of noting details of debit cards of customers at ATM centres and later fraudulently withdrawing money using recently launched Airtel money cash transfer system was busted by the Railway Police on Wednesday.
Two engineering graduates and a railway employee were among the seven persons arrested, Secunderabad Railway SP M. Kantha Rao said.
Modus operandi
Members of the gang would stand in queue at crowded bank ATM centres pretending as customers. They would target mostly senior citizens or women.
“Normally, customers are in the habit of holding their cards in their hands while standing in the queue at the ATM centres. One person of the gang would note down the debit card number and feed it in his mobile phone,” the SP said. The other would note the PIN and quietly leave the place without arousing anybody’s suspicion.
Later, they would log into Airtel money cash transfer system online and key in details of the debit card number and the PIN they had fraudulently collected. They would have already registered for the cash transfer system having purchased an Airtel SIM using fabricated documents.
By feeding the details, they get transferred money from the customer’s account into their accounts, the SP explained. They had, thus, transferred money from the accounts of customers into theirs in several cases. A railway police constable was also among the victims.
