Hacking case: Cops may question 2012 credit card scam accused

Preliminary investigations into the Axis Bank accounts hacking case have revealed that the modus operandi adopted by scamsters is similar to the Ulhasnagar case in 2012 involving an African national, police said today.

When contacted, ACP (south region) Krishna Prakash confirmed this saying all angles would be probed in the case, in which police personnel among others were defraud.

Police officials also said that CCTV footage of the ATM in Colaba, where the skimming device was attached to defraud policemen, will be scrutinised and if needed the accused arrested in connection with the Ulhasnagar case will be questioned.

An African national and a city-based trader had been arrested over 2011-12 for allegedly cloning credit card data of customers in Ulhasnagar in neighbouring Thane district and using the cards for online shopping, police said.

Colaba police had earlier this week registered a case against unknown persons under the Information Technology Act and Indian Penal Code after Axis Bank informed them that as many as 37 persons, including 12 policemen, have fallen prey to the ATM card cloning fraud to the tune of Rs 13 lakh.

A total of 29 Axis Bank accounts, including 12 operated by Mumbai policemen, had been hacked in the last two months and the money was withdrawn through ATMs in Greece.

Police yesterday claimed that the "skimming" device was attached to the ATM, located near the police headquarters in South Mumbai, which was allegedly used by fraudsters to clone debit cards of police personnel to defraud them, between May 7 and May 29.

Some of the policemen in the city had received SMS messages that cash has been withdrawn from their Axis bank accounts in euro currency.

The accounts were hacked during April and May, police said, adding that Axis Bank had contacted Mumbai police and informed them that they had set up a committee to probe the matter and credited the accounts of the victims.