The Hennur police recently arrested a gang of four, including a Nigerian, who had floated fake companies and purchased EDC machines (also known as a card swipe machine) from reputed private banks to swipe cloned international credit and debit cards.
The racket was unearthed on July 27 when T. Srinivas, an inspector with Hennur police station, was tipped off by the staff of a showroom about a Nigerian who was trying to purchase an expensive mobile phone from them by using an international credit card but refusing to submit his ID proof.
Srinivas rushed to the spot and detained the man, later identified as Gotau Peter Yusuf.
“On questioning him, we realised that he was part of a larger gang that was using cloned cards,” the inspector further added.
Based on information from Yusuf, the police later arrested Riyaz Ahmed Sheikh (43), Zabiulla (40) from Hubballi, and Dadapeer (55) from Davangere.
They also recovered five EDC machines the men had purchased from various banks by submitting documents relating to their fake firms.
The modus operandiExplaining the modus operandi, Srinivas said Riyaz, Dadapeer and Zabiulla, along with their associates Suhail and Nizam, floated fake firms (called Anjum Enterprises and Jamakhandi enterprises) and purchased swiping machines from various banks.
Yusuf, who is a hacker, would steal data by hacking into the websites of various banks and other firms.
He would use the data to make duplicate cards.
The gang would then swipe the cloned cards on the five EDC machines and share the profit amongst themselves.
“In the one year that they have been doing this, they stole crores of rupees from unsuspecting credit card holders,” Srinivas said.
Yusuf had come to Bengaluru on a student visa, but he decided that phishing was more lucrative.
His luck ran out when he decided to use the card not on his EDC machine but at a mobile phone showroom.
