Hyderabad: The sleuths of Commissioner’s Task Force, South Zone Team, along with Nampally Police today apprehended an Interstate Debit card Fraudsters gang and recovered 31 Debit cards of various banks and cash of Rs 22,000 at the instance of accused.
The accused were identified as Akhlak Ahmed, 23, ITI fitter student of Haryana, Muntheej, 19, ITI student in Govt. College, Punhana, Tofik, 28, fruit vendor of Anajmandi, Haryana State, Tasleem, 20, ITI student, Namesingh Parmar, ITI, Kaman of Bharatpur district of Rajasthan, Sakir Mohammed, 23, agriculturist of Kalyanpur, Rajasthan.
Police said the modus operandi of the accused was that they choose unmanned ATM centers for burglary. While two persons enter the ATM centre, one accused by using the debit card, operates ATM machine normally. Right at the moment when cash is being dispensed into the cash dispenser of the ATM, the second person manipulate the ATM machine to create technical error. Simultaneously the first person covers the hidden (web) camera of ATM with one hand and catch hold of the cash that has reached the cash dispenser.
After the second person creates technical error, the first person takes out cash in a professional way such that nothing is caught in the cameras present in the room. Later he spends a few moments near the ATM and acts as if cash was not dispensed from the cash dispenser.
The accused completes the operation within no time. After the above process, the accused lodges complaint (through toll free number) with the call centre that they could not withdraw the cash from the ATM and their transaction was failed. The concerned Bank of the accused forwards the complaint to the Bank of the ATM, where the accused persons have operated. The Bank of the ATM on verification finds that the transaction of accused failed because of error due to power interruption during dispense of cash.
As per the Banking Ombudsman guidelines, the ATM Bank has to pay back the amount to the customer as he is the victim in failed transaction. Taking this technicality as an advantage, the accused committed several such offences by using several debit cards and claimed the money from the Banks. The accused persons avoid using debit cards in concerned Bank ATMs to minimise risk. The accused after withdrawing the cash through above process, immediately deposit the cash back into their accounts to avoid recovery if caught by police and also to operate again. Thus the accused keep drawing the money and deposit on a rotation basis.
The apprehended accused along with recovered property was handed over to the S.H.O. Nampally. (NSS)
