Mumbai: The Cyber police have arrested a Bulgarian national for allegedly using cloned debit cards and withdrawing money from accounts of customers of a leading bank.
Internal inquiry
According to the Cyber police, the matter was brought to their attention by officials of the bank after they conducted an internal inquiry. “A debit card was retained by one of the bank’s ATM machine earlier this month, and on inquiry, bank officials found that the person who was trying to use the card was not the legitimate account holder. They registered a complaint with us and we initiated investigations,” said Akhilesh Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Cyber Crime.
The police, after examining CCTV footage of the ATM centre and neighbouring establishments, mapped out the movements of the suspect and identified some places that he visited regularly. He was picked up outside one such place and arrested. “The accused, identified as Acklando Mykhaylo, was staying in a rented apartment in Juhu, and on searching it, we found several cloned debit cards, ₹69,000 in cash, a laptop, and electronic storage devices. Prima facie, we suspect that the accused had installed a skimmer in another ATM machine of the bank and was using it to steal debit card data of customers,” said an officer, adding that the accused made most of his payments in cash.
In India since July
Mykhaylo has been in India since July last year on a tourist visa. The police have also found out that he had visited India in 2014.
“The accused claims to not knowing English too well, but we suspect that this is a ploy to delay our investigations. He has been remanded in police custody till April 18,” the officer said.
