Kakinada MP Thota Narasimham lodged a complaint with the police here that his debit card was cloned by cyber criminals and Rs 50,000 was drawn from his account at an ATM in Goa.
Mr. Narasimham was taken aback when he received an SMS from his bank about the withdrawal of money from his account. He requested a freeze of his debit card and lodged a complaint with the Two Town police of Kakinada and the Cyber Crime Cell of the East Godavari police. The case is being investigated by CBCID.
Police said the criminals must have accessed the data on the MP’s debit card while he was making a payment at a mall or restaurant. They may have used a small device called a skimmer that can read the data of a bank card and upload it to a computer. Using the uploaded data, the offenders must have created a duplicate card using which they withdrew money from an ATM in Goa. “How the offenders came to know the password of the MP is the question before us,” said superintendent of police M. Ravi Prakash.
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“The Cyber Crime Cell is working in close coordination with the state unit in cracking this case.” This year, the East Godavari police have registered three cases of a similar nature.
“The victims were from the district, but the offences took place in Hyderabad and Bangalore. In all the cases, offenders knew the CVV code of the bank cards,” Mr. Ravi Prakash said.