E-Paper
Chandigarh: Inter-state gang involved in ATM frauds busted
The accused, identified as Bittu Kumar, 27, Vimlesh Kumar, 33, Dharmender Kumar, 27, and Rohit Kumar, 27, are natives of Gaya in Bihar and were arrested from Mehta district in Gurdaspur
The cyber cell of Chandigarh Police busted an inter-state gang by arresting four persons involved in at least 19 cases of ATM fraud across Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and the NCR region.
The accused, identified as Bittu Kumar, 27, Vimlesh Kumar, 33, Dharmender Kumar, 27, and Rohit Kumar, 27, are natives of Gaya in Bihar and were arrested from Mehta district in Gurdaspur. Police recovered two mobile phones, a knife, a screwdriver, a needle nose plier, four SIM cards from different service providers and 10 ATM cards from various banks from their possession.
Complainant Jagpal Singh, a resident of Sector 39 B, told the police that on December 6, he visited the Canara Bank ATM booth in the same sector. When he inserted his card into the machine, it got stuck. On this, he approached customer service no. 776-295-8165, pasted in the booth. The person on the other end asked him to enter his card PIN and press the cancel button and again asked to enter the PIN and then press the enter button. As nothing happened, the person asked the complainant to wait. As the complainant returned after some time, he found his card missing.
On the same day at around 6 pm, a total of ₹71,000 was debited from his SBI bank account. He called that number which was then switched off.
On the same day, police received another complaint from one Manohar Kumar Singh who was duped with the same modus operandi at an ATM and an amount of ₹65,000 was fraudulently debited from his account. This time the incident occurred at an ATM branch in Khuda Lahora.
After registration of the case, a raiding party was constituted and with the help of technical assistance, raids were conducted at different places in Chandigarh and Punjab.
Bittu Kumar and Vimlesh Kumar are Class 8th passout while the other two have completed Class 12th. Dharmender and Vimlesh already have criminal cases registered against them in Uttar Pradesh, the police said.
Modus operandi
The accused used to target those ATM booths where security guards were not deployed. In the ATM booths, they pasted fake pamphlets with mobile number 776-295-8165 mentioned as “customer service”.
One of the accused used to keep the mobile phone with him and another one used to come into the ATM booth as a mechanic and open the ATM with the help of a knife, screwdriver, and needle nose pliers. After opening the machine, the accused closed the machine with the help of Fevikwik. When a customer comes to use his/her ATM card, it gets stuck. On calling the customer care number, he/she is asked to enter the PIN. In the meantime, one of the accused stands near the customer and sees the PIN.
As the customer is asked to wait, he/she usually leaves the ATM to return after some time. The accused then withdrew money using the PIN.
