Romanian gets bail in card cloning case

Chandigarh, November 16

Romanian national Miclea Lecian Lonut, arrested by the crime branch of the UT police in August for installing skimming devices at Canara Bank ATMs, was granted bail by a local court today.

Lonut and another accused, Paraschiv George, both 37, had arrived in India on a tourist visa in July. They visited the city on August 5, when they fitted skimmers in ATMs, and again on August 7 to collect the devices and information. The accused had brought the devices along with them and had planned to collect data from all over India and sell it abroad.

The accused targeted specific ATMs, which were of an old make. These have a curved structure above the keypad, which can be used to fit a camera. The camera’s video recording would help in getting the ATM card PIN of the user as the card was skimmed by another device.

The UT police had also arrested another Romanian, Attila Luhos, from Hotel Sands Inn, Sector 56, Gurugram, on August 12. He, along with another Romanian, Paul Sorin, had installed a skimmer and a camera at an ATM in Mohali. — TNS