This story is from January 13, 2016

Card cloners convicted

For the first time in the city , two debit and credit card cloning offenders were convicted by a local court.
Card cloners convicted
Hyderabad: For the first time in the city , two debit and credit card cloning offenders were convicted by a local court. The court has awarded the two offenders three-year simple imprisonment for duping 32 victims by gathering their debit card data with gadgets installed at ATM centres.
The two culprits were identified as Hyder Ali Sarang, 37, a welder, and Avith Ashok Shetty , 29, a call centre employee, both from Mumbai.
On Monday , the XIV additional chief metropolitan magistrate of Nampally convicted the two in five cases registered under sections 420, 380 of the IPC and sections 66, 66 (C), 66 (D) of the Information Technology Act, 2008, at the Punjagutta police station in 2014.
The two had committed 32 credit and debit card cloning offences at various places in the city in 2014. In November 2014, Punjagutta police crime team had arrested the two and remanded them in judicial custody . Subsequently , the two were booked un der the PD Act in May 2015.
“The accused used to install a small high resolution camera in the roof of an ATM centre right above the cash vending machine to record the PIN entered by the victims and then append a magnetic card reader to the ATM machine card slot to capture card details. Using these deta ils, the gang used to prepare cloned cards and withdraw cash from places like Goa, Mumbai, Trichy , Kol kata, Pune, Delhi and Chennai,“ deputy commissioner of police (DCP), West Zone, A Venkateswara Rao said at a press conference held at the office of the ACP , Punjagutta.
After the arrest of the gang, the card cloning offences reduced drastically in the city. The court has sentenced the accused to undergo three-year simple imprisonment in each of the five cases and also pay Rs 40,000 fine in each case. The sentences would run concurrently .
The main accused in the case, Faizan Farooq Chatriwala, and six of his associates were still absconding.
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