CCB cops bust duplicate credit cards racket

Two from Chennai among three held

In a first of its kind case, the City Police claim to have bust a racket of ‘hi-tech’ fraudsters, who were on a shopping spree using duplicate credit cards. The city crime branch (CCB) police have arrested three persons in the case and have seized articles worth several lakhs.

Addressing media, at his office, on Tuesday, Police Commissioner B Dayananda said, the accused identified as Selvam C alias Selva, aged 27 years and a resident of Bamboo Bazaar, Mysuru, Udaykumar, 38, and L Bhaskaran, 40, both from Chennai were arrested near the check-post on Mysuru-Hunsur road on June 21.

Explaining about their modus operandi, the police commissioner said, “Udaykumar, the prime accused, is a LLB holder. He was equally tech savvy and had succeeded in buying the data of credit cards belonging to foreigners through great dump website. He had copied it into the duplicate cards in his possession using read and writing method. Once the duplicate cards were ready, he along with the co-accused, was shopping at commercial complexes and malls in the city”.

Quoting the accused version, the commissioner said, they had an unholy nexus with some of the shop owners, where they were swiping the cards on the pretext of buying goods. 

Once the amount was credited to the owners account, they were sharing it. Some of the shop owners had even lent their card swiping machines and were sharing the ill-gotten wealth later. The investigation in this regard is underway, the commissioner added.

However, they came under close watch, after purchasing three cellphones at Loyal World, a supermarket in the city. Though they had purchased the phone using the credit card, the amount was not credited to the owner’s account. 

The shopkeeper, who grew suspicious, lodged a complaint at Nazarbad station, that led the investigators to them.

Reacting to queries, the commissioner said, a travel agent in Bengaluru is also suspected to be a part of the racket. There seems to be a bigger racket behind it and the investigation has been intensified. To another query, the commissioner appealed to shopkeepers to alert the sentinels during such dubious transactions.

He replied in the negative about any police complaints from foreigners, as most of the software data procured by the accused belonged to foreign nationals. The police commissioner attributed it to the insurance cover extended to bank accounts in foreign countries, that may have prevented them to seek police help.

The articles seized from the accused include three cellphones worth Rs 1.15 lakh, Rs 2 lakh in cash, a car worth Rs 10 lakh, two laptops, five machines, including two read and writer.

The police team, led by Inspectors K C Prakash and Mohammed Hasmath Khan, cracked the case under the supervision of ACP (CCB) C Gopal.