16 lose lakhs to cyber fraud

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 22

The cyber security wing of the police have booked unknown employees of Axis Bank and the Hitachi company in a case of fraudulent withdrawals worth several lakhs from ATM cards of around 12 residents of the city.

The thieves withdrew cash from the victims’ accounts by cloning their debit and credit cards. Most of the withdrawals took place in Delhi. The fraud reminds of cyber crooks Mukul Garg and his girlfriend Ramandeep Kaur, who had stolen huge data of ATMs in connivance with petrol pump employees and fraudulently withdrawn huge cash from the victims’ accounts. The police had arrested the duo. Ramandeep committed suicide at the Dugri police station.

Sub-Inspector Navdeep Singh, in charge of Cyber Cell, said a case of cheating, forgery, theft and criminal conspiracy had been registered against certain employees of Axis Bank and the Hitachi company. In the further probe, these unknown employees would be identified and arrested.

“We already have names of suspects and probe is in its final stage to name the suspects from the bank and the Hitachi company in the FIR. So far, 16 persons have been fleeced by these swindlers, and now more and more people are calling up the police alleging similar frauds. Once the suspects are arrested, the number of victims may cross the 100 mark,” Navdeep added.

Cyber criminals get data from stolen ATM card reader

Cyber Cell chief Navdeep Singh said after 16 persons filed a complaint to the Commissioner of Police, a probe was launched. It was found that about three months ago, card reader and a DVR of the Axis bank ATM installed in J Block BRS Nagar was stolen. The Hitachi company is looking after the technical support of the ATM. Neither the Axis bank nor the Hitachi company intimated the police about the theft. The theft was serious because the card reader contained all data of ATMs swiped there. The cyber criminals created duplicate cards by using that data with the technique of skimming and cloning. “The card reader was stolen by opening the ATM with keys. No damage was visible on the machine, which signals the role of employees of the bank and Hitachi in the theft,” he asserted.

The 16 victims of BRS Nagar

Ghanshyam, Manjit Singh, Neeraj Kumar, Shubam Sharma, Rupinder Singh, Amarjit Kaur, Baljinder Singh, Rajinderpal Sharma, Sandeep Kumar, Sukhchain Singh, Sharanjit Kaur, Gurjit Singh, Gurkaran Singh, Gurmeet Singh, Prakash Jain, Akhil Pant, and Parul Pant.

What is ATM skimming and cloning  

Through ATM skimming and cloning, criminals get data coded on the magnetic strip on the back of an ATM card. Devices used are smaller than a deck of cards and are often fastened in close proximity to or over the top of the factory-installed card reader of an ATM.  They then make duplicate cards using the stolen data and withdraw cash from victims’ accounts.