Noida: Five of gang arrested for duping people by switching their ATM cards

The Noida police on Thursday arrested five members of a gang for allegedly duping people by switching their ATM cards. About 34 stolen cards from the four suspects, the police said.

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According to police officers, the suspects were traced following an investigation into a case lodged on February 2 based on a complaint by a Nithari-based man who had alleged that his ATM card had been swapped by the suspects who had withdrawn ₹ 2.75 lakh from his bank account.

The suspects, who were arrested around 9.30 pm on Thursday from near Nithari, were identified as Sandeep (single name), Rajendra Singh and Deepak Singh— residents of Hapur district, and Umesh Kumar and Omkar (single name) —residents of Noida.

“The suspects would go to different ATM kiosks across the district and would swap people’s ATM cards with similar ones on the pretext of helping them with their transactions. They used to get hold of the people’s PIN (personal identification number) while pretending to help them with the transaction, and would carry withdraw money later,” said deputy commissioner of police, zone 1, Sankalp Sharma.

While tracing the money withdrawn from the Nithari-based man’s account, it came to light that the money had been used to purchase expensive electrical gadgets like TV sets, fridges among others, the police said.

The police suspect that the gang has been active in Gautam Budh Nagar, Hapur, Bulandhshar among other districts for the past few months, and is working on how many cases the suspects’ gang was involved in and how much money they made by duping people.

“All of them have an extensive criminal history. Sandeep and Deepak are also wanted under the Gangster act in Hapur and Gautam Budh Nagar respectively, while Umesh has also been to jail for thefts,” said the DCP.

Along with the 34 ATM cards, the police also recovered three motorcycles, two knives, and a few electronics bought with stolen money from the suspects.

The suspects were produced before a magistrate and later sent to jail.