The Mumbai Police Crime Branch has busted a pan-India racket where a gang of four accused were cloning debit and credit cards of foreign nationals using stolen data and using the cards to siphon off money from their accounts. The gang, which has allegedly been active for the last five years, is believed to have made around ₹40 crore till now.
According to Crime Branch officers, the lid was blown off the racket after the Property Cell of the Crime Branch received a tip-off.
“Working on the information, our personnel arrested four accused who were running the racket. They would obtain banking details of foreign nationals and create clones of their debit or credit cards. The next step was to obtain card swiping machines from shopkeepers in tourist destinations like Goa, Jaipur and Nainital, where foreign nationals routinely use their debit or credit cards for shopping. In order to avoid detection by CCTV cameras in case a complaint was ever registered, the accused would collect the swiping machines and bring them to Mumbai,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) Dilip Sawant said.
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Mr. Sawant said the accused would swipe the cloned cards for fraudulent transactions around the same time as the concerned banks were shutting down for the day. The advantage, the police said, was that even if the victims flagged the transaction, they would be asked to make a formal complaint the next day as the bank had shut shop.
“In western countries, the law required the banks to compensate the customers in case they lose money in fraudulent transactions. Hence, once the customers got their money back, they would not register police complaints. Meanwhile, the money debited from their accounts would be credited to the shopkeepers’ accounts who, after taking their cut, would pass on the rest of the amount to the accused,” Mr. Sawant said.