Man arrested for ATM card fraud

A 32-year-old plumber has been arrested for switching ATM cards of unsuspecting victims and withdrawing cash from their accounts

Mumbai A 32-year-old plumber has been arrested for switching ATM cards of unsuspecting victims and withdrawing cash from their accounts.

When the accused Sambhav Acharya was searched, the Mahim police found at least 50 non-usable ATM debit cards in his possession of different banks (HT File)

When the accused Sambhav Acharya was searched, the Mahim police found at least 50 non-usable ATM debit cards in his possession of different banks.

According to the police, on March 30, a 56-year-old woman went to the ATM centre near Paradise Cinema at Mahim at 1.30 pm to generate a PIN number. After typing the PIN thrice, the victim received a message on her phone that the PIN number was incorrect. She then turned around to ask the next person for help. The man asked the victim to hand him the card to examine if it was faulty and pick up the transaction slip which had fallen down. As the victim bent down to pick up the slip, Acharya switched the debit card with a non-usable one from the same bank. He then handed her the card and left the ATM centre saying that he was in a hurry.

A few minutes later, the victim received a message on her phone that ₹70,000 had been withdrawn from her savings account. She approached the bank immediately and reported the incident to the police on the advice of the bank.

The police officers said that after registering the complaint against an unknown person, they scanned the CCTV recordings of the ATM centre and found the man identified by the victim, arriving in a taxi and then leaving the ATM centre in the same taxi.

The Mahim police then detained the taxi driver who revealed that Acharya had been hiring him from Borivali and taking him around the city to various ATM centres.

After laying a trap for Acharya, the police arrested him on Saturday. “On searching Acharya, we found more than 50 debit cards of various banks,” said a police officer from Mahim police station. Acharya who is a history-sheeter, has several cases against him across the city.

The police said that Acharya used to look for ATM machine users who were not technically literate. He then used to offer them help and ask them to insert the card and type the PIN number which he used to see and remember. He then used to tell the victim to pick up the transaction slip which he would deliberately throw on the floor. When the victim bent down to pick up the slip, he used to switch the debit card of the victim. After the victim left the spot, Acharya would withdraw the amount.

The police said that Acharya was remanded to police custody as they had to recover the amount and also find out whether he had accomplices or was he a part of any gang using the same modus operandi to cheat people.