A restaurant employee has been arrested for allegedly making illegal transactions of over ₹3 lakh after cloning customers’ cards, the police said on Wednesday.
The accused has been identified as Pankaj Kumar, they said.
On February 14, a private bank alleged that few of their customers, who were using credit and debit cards, have disputed transactions. Moreover, the cards were with the customers at the time of those transactions, Madhur Verma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi), said. The bank also filed a case.
During investigation, it was revealed that a restaurant in Connaught Place was the common point of purchase from all the cards.
The police tallied all the dates when the cards were used at that restaurant and found that one steward staff, later identified as Pankaj, was the person who had attended all the customers whose cards had disputed transactions, Mr. Verma said.
Thereafter, the police laid a trap at the restaurant and apprehended Pankaj and recovered a screamer from his possession, he said. During interrogation, Pankaj said that one Rahul met him Connaught Place and taught him how to use the screamer.
He used to re-swipe cards of customers and noted down the last four digit of the card, the PIN code and the bank’s name. He used to hand over the screamer with the data of the cards and other details to Rahul, Mr. Verma also said.
After each card was cloned, the accused refrained from using it for a month to make sure nobdy doubted about their cards being cloned at that restaurant, Mr. Verma said.
A total ₹3,75,300 were transferred from the accounts of the victims, Mr. Verma said, adding a manhunt to arrest Rahul is on.
