If you live or work around southeastern Bengaluru’s IT hubs, then watch the ATMs where you withdraw cash.
Police have just busted a gang-of-four that stole people’s debit/credit card data by installing skimmers at several ATMs along the Outer Ring Road in Bellandur.
Gaurang, 31, a native of Surat, Gujarat, and Kirubagaran, 56, from Vellore, Tamil Nadu, were caught by patrolmen last week, police said. A third suspect, identified as Sanjay, escaped from police net, said Bellandur police inspector, T Srinivas. Police are also looking out for the fourth suspect, Arjun.
The gang targeted ATMs in the IT hubs for installing skimmers. A skimmer is a small device placed over card readers in ATMs. The device captures and stores all the details — card number, expiry date, card holder’s name, etc — stored in the card’s magnetic stripe. The gang also installed cameras atop ATMs that looked like smoke detectors.
The suspects would retrieve the card details from the memory card of the skimmer and later made fake cards. The cameras helped them watch the PIN. The gang later uses the fake cards at point of sale and Paytm card machines.
Police attention was drawn towards the gang after six transactions of more than one lakh rupees were reported by customers.
Dyavappa and Siddappa Siddagi, patrolmen from the Bellandur police station, managed to catch the two suspects as they were moving suspiciously near the Ecospace tech park on November 14. The suspects told the police that their ringleader, Arjun, had sent them to Bengaluru and gave them card details.
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