Inter-State Gang Cloning Bank Cards Of Customers At ATM Busted, Gujarat Police Arrest 4 From UP

You might have heard about highway robbers or serial thieves but here is a gang of scammers from Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh who travelled across India in their SUV car and cloned thousands of bank cards of senior citizens and labourers on the way. This was done on the pretext of helping them in using the ATM machine.

The revelation was made after Bharuch Cyber Cell of Gujarat Police arrested four cybercriminals who cloned bank cards using cloning devices and stole secret pin by pretending to help in using the ATM.

The gang was active since 2019 and was nabbed after Bharuch cyber cell received the complaint and tracked their every movement across India. The cyber cell set a trap to arrest these conmen when they were travelling in the state and cheating people.

“We had received many complaints of money withdrawn from debit cards. Most of the victims were senior citizens and daily wagers. The modus-operandi in all the cases was the same. Users of particular ATM branch were targeted and their money was withdrawn from Surat,” said a senior police officer of Bharuch Cyber Cell.

The officer told The420.in that during the detailed investigation it was found that the gang cloned card from one district and then used in neighbouring district. After their arrest, they told the police that every three months the four member-gang used to start their road trip. They targeted ATM machines installed in the rural area as people are less aware of digital banking. Posing as customers they used to stand in a queue or near the ATM machine as soon any senior citizen or a worker used to come to withdraw money they used to offer help. On the pretext of helping them, they used to swipe their card on their cloning device and copy the data of their debit card stored in its magnetic strip.

They also used to stand next to their target while performing a transaction and note their secret PIN. After targeting customer on one ATM machine the gang used to move to another district and based on cloned data make an alternate card and withdraw money. The gang was active in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The gang has so far cheated thousands of people and has amassed huge wealth. A detailed investigation into the matter will reveal the magnitude of the scam and the number of people targeted by them. Police have seized cash, mobile and cloning device from their possession.