Lucknow: An engineering graduate who quit his IT job to run an ATM card-swapping fraud racket has been arrested by a joint team of Madiaon police and the crime branch along with his associate Shahban. Police recovered 181 ATM cards, four fake Aadhaar cards, a motorcycle without number plate, a mobile phone and cash from their possession.
According to police, the main accused, Dilshad, is a BTech graduate who previously worked in an IT company. Claiming his salary was insufficient to meet expenses, he left the job and began targeting ATM users. Over the past three years, he allegedly swapped cards of hundreds of elderly people and women and withdrew more than ₹30 lakh from their bank accounts.
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Modus operandi
The accused would wait inside ATM booths and identify individuals who appeared unfamiliar with the machine, particularly senior citizens and women. As soon as the victim inserted the card, he would stand behind them and observe the PIN. He then cancelled the transaction, claimed the machine was not working and offered assistance. During this process, he would swap the victim’s ATM card with another one.
By the time victims realised the fraud, money had already been withdrawn from their accounts at different locations.
Operations across multiple states
During interrogation, the accused admitted to carrying out similar offences in several areas of Lucknow, including Madiaon, Jankipuram, Para, Chinhat, Alambagh, Naka and Kaiserbagh. He also confessed to committing ATM frauds in Maharashtra, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh.
In recent cases, ₹17,700 each was withdrawn from the accounts of Arjun Singh and Raju Gupta, while ₹2.40 lakh was siphoned from the account of Sushma Srivastava. All three victims were elderly and had visited ATMs where the accused swapped their cards under the pretext of helping them.
Police action
Police officials said both accused have been booked under relevant sections of law and further investigation is underway to identify additional victims using the recovered ATM cards.
Authorities have advised the public not to accept help from strangers at ATMs, to cover the keypad while entering the PIN and to immediately inform the bank and police if they suspect card swapping.
The arrests are being seen as a major breakthrough against ATM card fraud targeting vulnerable users, particularly senior citizens and women.
