History sheeter held for tampering with ATM kiosks, stealing debit cards

Mumbai The Saki Naka police, on Monday, arrested a history sheeter who would allegedly steal debit cards from women and senior citizens while pretending to help them withdraw money from ATM machines that he himself had tampered with earlier

Mumbai The Saki Naka police, on Monday, arrested a history sheeter who would allegedly steal debit cards from women and senior citizens while pretending to help them withdraw money from ATM machines that he himself had tampered with earlier. The police have recovered 44 debit cards from him and are conducting inquiries into his antecedents.

History sheeter held for tampering with ATM kiosks, stealing debit cards

According to the Saki Naka police, the accused has been identified as Sahil Sheikh (24), a resident of the Vidyavihar area. The police said that investigations were initiated against him after he stole a woman’s debit card at an ATM kiosk in the Jari Mari area and then used it to withdraw cash as well as make purchases amounting to ₹51,751 on October 28.

“We examined the complainant’s debit card transactions and focused on the transactions made after her card was stolen. We found that he had withdrawn ₹25,000 from an ATM, which is the highest amount that one can withdraw in a day, after which he used it to buy jewelery and some other items at a mall. We obtained CCTV footage of all these locations, as well as the scene of the crime, and made stills of his face, which we circulated among our informants as well as counterparts in other police stations,” said an officer who is part of the investigating team.

Subsequently, the police learned from other police stations that the accused is a history sheeter arrested four times in the past for such offences. At the same time, local informants provided them a tip off that he would be coming to Kurla early on Monday morning. Accordingly, they laid a trap and arrested him. A subsequent search of his house revealed a total of 44 debit cards issued by different banks.

“Sheikh would tamper with ATM kiosks by inserting discarded transaction slips into the card slot. This renders the machine inoperable for a short while. When customers try to use the machine, they would get an ‘error’ message, Sheikh would enter and offer to help. This mostly worked on senior citizens or those who did not use ATMs often, as the more experienced ones would simply decline his offer and find another ATM. Once he had a victim’s card in his hands, he would replace it with another one. He would then pretend to try to help the victims and mentally note their PINs, after which he would hand the replacement cards to the victims and pocket their card,” said assistant police inspector Arjun Kudale, Saki Naka police station.

Sheikh has been charged with cheating and criminal breach of trust under the Indian Penal Code and remanded in police custody till November 2, he added.