An international racket involving skimming and cloning of credit and debit cards was busted by the Cyberabad police on Monday with the arrest of five persons, including a web designer.
The gang led by web designer Polavaram Kamal Kumar, (28) had defrauded people to the tune of over Rs. 5 crore till now, Cyberabad Police Commissioner Ch. Dwaraka Tirumala Rao told reporters here.
Hailing from Narsaraopet in Guntur district, Kumar developed friendship with Ammar Ali (31) and Sha Jamal (30) both natives of Bihar, Zameer Shaik (26) of Mumbai and Ajay Lal Mathur (22) of Delhi through social networking sites.
He floated a software company in Punjagutta but it ran into losses. He later became a member of a website carders.su which is famous for hackers and developed knowledge in skimming and cloning of credit and debit cards. He took guidance from a Canadian national Kronik on collecting data of cardholders, skimming and cloning process and obtained skimmers, data cables from him, Mr. Rao said.
As part of their plans, the gang started a scheme – Make-A-Deal: Every deal is a steal – offering free mobile recharge for Rs. 250 instantly by accepting Rs. 50 through debit card only. They had collected encrypted data of over 500 customers at malls in Madhapur and Banjara Hills with the help of skimmers. The data, incorporated in the black magnetic strip at the back of the card, would be captured by the skimmer when swiped.
The data was sent to Kronik through online and was cloned on the blank black magnetic strip through a card writer and later mark a PIN number on them. “With these cards, they withdrew cash from ATMs in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and other cities,” Mr. Rao said.
The gang had cheated people in Ranchi by introducing petro card scheme offering 20 per cent concession for painting, denting and servicing of cars. They collected data of 500 customers through skimmers and swindled their amount.
Latest software
The gang had developed contacts with one Bala in Canada and obtained skimmed data of cardholders in Canada and other European countries. “It is the first time that a gang had developed sufficient technical knowledge, using latest software and hardware technology and posed a threat to financial and other institutions,” the Commissioner said.
Five other gang members Aman and Sonu of Delhi, Shafi of Lucknow and Annu and Afroze of Mumbai are absconding. Equipment worth over Rs.1 crore was seized from them.
