CHENNAI: The Central Crime Branch sleuths on Wednesday arrested two more Sri Lankans in connection with ATM fraud, even as the number of complaints from credit card users has touched 272. So far, three gangs have been busted, 15 persons held and some 1,000 fake ATM cards seized and the illegally swiped money estimated to be more than Rs 1 crore.
The latest arrests came following a complaint lodged by the West Mambalam branch manager of Canara Bank on Tuesday, alleging that during inspection of their ATM centre on Reddykuppam Road, the bank officials found a few persons loitering suspiciously in the area. On being challenged, they took their heels, leaving behind their equipment, which helped the CCB sleuths to zero in on them.
Assistant Commissioner (bank fraud), CCB, A John Rose identified the two arrested men as A Janakan (29), a diploma holder in computer science, and his relative D Suresh, a school dropout, both Sri Lankans staying in Tiruchy. Two laptops, two cellphones, three passports and 60 fake credit cards were seized from the duo. “The two men have revealed the names of four or five of their accomplices and now we are making efforts to trace them,” the ACP told Express.
Lured by Easy Money
The two Sri Lankans appear to be part of a large gang of ATM fraudsters, who are constantly looking to expanding their net by luring in youth who are in dire need of money and looking for easy opportunities to make them, the CCB officer said.
In fact, Janakan was accosted by some people, who visited his house to use his computer. Sensing his need for money and the fact that the computer-savvy youth could be of use to them, they made a business proposition: For an attractive commission, he should print the stolen data given to him on fake credit cards. Janakan agreed and roped in Suresh, a painter.
Grilled, another suspect told the police that he fell into the net on hearing a gang member saying why he should toil when he could make money easily by joining the racket. A CCB officer said the gang members led a flashy lifestyle. They travelled to a lot and also had other racketeers visiting them from abroad. “Whenever they needed money, they just had to swipe the stolen card.”
'Difficult process'
John Rose said the probe had become difficult because the stolen data had been sold to many. “In one case, cash had been withdrawn from Chennai, Bangalore, Salem and Colombo using data drawn from a single credit card,” he pointed out. The CCB sleuths alerted private, nationalised and international banks to block the accounts of their customers whose credit card data had been compromised. The efforts resulted in over 2,000 card data being blocked.
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