ATM tricksters eat into debit cards

Ahmedabad: For Kheda Police, it began earlier this month when an elderly sports coach complained that somebody had swiped his debit card and cleaned out his account, which had some Rs 2.5 lakh in it. As a few incidents with a similar modus operandi had come to light, Kheda police started investigations. On Thursday, they busted a gang of seven people, of which four were caught in a car near Kathlal with Rs 1.40 lakh cash and 30 debit and credit cards.
Maninder Singh Pawar, SP of Kheda told TOI that four people, identified as Ramesh Punia, Suresh Punia, Sanjay Punia and Kaluram Sansi, all residents of Hisar in Haryana, had been active in Gujarat for eight months, during which time they committed some 40 offences.“Police of Ahmedabad city, Anand, Junagadh, Gir Somnath, Bhavnagar, Narmada and Godhra districts registered 18 cases against the gang so far,” he said.
V J Rathod, inspector of Kheda LCB, said the gang had no fixed work and would various states and get involved in cheating. “Their modus operandi involved at least two members being inside an ATM kiosk. They would target semi-urban and rural areas where recent converts to ATM banking could be duped. Their usual targets were the elderly,” he said.
How they needled their victims for PIN
Investigators said that when a target would go to an ATM kiosk, one gang member would enter on the pretext of some other work, such as depositing cheque or filling up a form. When the target was in the middle of the transaction, the gang member would converse with them and ask them to make another transaction, such as getting a mini statement citing some rule. While the target would do this, the gang member would see the PIN being keyed in.
“In some cases, the gang members would carry out the transaction for the target, but would then return a phoney card to the victim. In other cases, they would swap the card while pretending to examine it. They had bought a number of cards of various banks from Delhi. The original card would then be used to withdraw money. They would throw away the card when it was blocked and would then search for new victims,” said an official.
Investigators said members of the public should never operate an ATM in the presence of another person or share personal information with anybody, to prevent such crimes.