2 Romanian nationals arrested for Chandigarh ATM fraud

CHANDIGARH: Two Romanian nationals were arrested from Delhi in connection with an alleged ATM fraud in Chandigarh, police said on Saturday. The accused disclosed that they arrived in Chandigarh on August 2 with the intention of putting skimmers and spy cameras at ATMs.

Cops show the wigs used by the accused to disguise themselves while committing the crime at ATM kiosks, during a press conference in Chandigarh on Saturday. Tribune photos: Manoj Mahajan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 11

The Chandigarh Police have arrested two Romanian nationals for installing skimming devices and cameras on ATM machines of Canara Bank across the city.

Miclea Lecian Lonut and Paraschiv George, both 37, had arrived in India on tourist visa last month. They came to the city on August 5 when they fitted the skimmers and again on August 7 to collect the devices and information.

They were produced in front of a magistrate, who sent them to three-day police remand.

While George landed in India on July 3, Lonut reached on July 10.

The police informed that they brought the devices along with them and had planned to collect data from all over India and sell it abroad. Thus, transactions would have been done later from other countries and by then, they would have also fled outside India.

The accused targeted specific ATM machines, which were of 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. However, no card cloning has been reported yet, the police claimed.

The accused used to wear accessories to hide their identity. Caps, glasses and even a wig were used by the accused, which have been recovered by the police. The duo conducted a recce of the city and zeroed in on ATMs that they were to target. They visited these ATMs early in the morning, between 7 am and 7.30 am, when the footfall is almost negligible. The police informed that CCTV footage of the ATMs revealed two different people and they received information that they could be part of an international gang of fraudsters. The police then checked records of various hotels and found that this duo had resided in Metro Hotel, Sector 35, and Western Court in Sector 43. On their trail, the police arrested them at Vasant Kunj in Delhi on Friday.

The police said there were at least 10- 15 more gang members, who were on the run and could be doing the same job in other parts of the country. The police informed that persons involved in similar cases had been arrested in Delhi, Kerala and Kolkata as well.

Modus operandi

Reached city on August 5, put up in hotels
Did recce, identified ATMs with old machines
Disguised themselves with wig, cap and glasses
Installed skimmers, cameras early morning when footfall was least
Collected devices with data two days later

In police remand

10-15 members on prowl across India
Two arrested, others at large
No card cloning reported yet, claim police
Arrested duo in three-day police remand

Targeted India due to surge in Digital transactions

The interrogation of the accused revealed that they targeted India because they discovered that there was a surge in digital transactions here. Thus, they would be able to collect maximum data and sell it abroad later. However, the police are having a problem in understanding what the accused say and were trying to rope in a translator so that they can interrogate them better.

Three incidents

On August 4, a complaint was received about a skimmer and a camera found installed in a Canara Bank ATM at Sector 17. An FIR in this regard was registered on August 8 under Sections 420 (cheating) and 511 (attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the IPC. A similar complaint was received from Sector 36 on the same day and from Mani Majra two days later.