Gang defrauding bank arrested

Aurangabad, Aug 1:

City Cyber Police arrested a gang that was defrauding banks by taking advantage of the technical fault of ATM machines.

It may be noted that the gang was busted by Nagpur recently.

The preliminary information indicates that the gang members withdrew over Rs 13 lakh from different ATMs of the city.

Cyber Police Cell of the city police brought three members of the gang-Iqbal Khan, Anis Khan and Mohammed Talib (all residents of Palval-Mevat, Nuh tehsil, Haryana) from Nagpur.

Police said that the accused used to withdraw money through IDFC (virtual bank) by taking advantage of the technical fault of ATM machines of the State Bank of India (SBI). Even after the withdrawal of money, the entry of transaction does not take place in the account holder or bank record.

During the probe, it was revealed that the prime accused Salim had knowledge that particular brand ATM machines have this shortcoming.

The gang member committed similar frauds in different parts of the country. They withdrew more than Rs 13 lakh from different ATM centres of the city.

Police succeeded in detecting the involvement of Iqbal, one of the three accused, in committing frauds at the city’s ATM centres. The other two are being interrogated. A total of four more persons were found involved in the crime. Police officers told this newspaper that those accused would be arrested soon.

Police inspector of Cyber Crime Geeta Bagwade, PSI Rahul Chavan and their team carried out the action.

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Modus operandi of crime

Police said the accused used to insert debit cards in ATM machines. They used to hold some part of currency notes in the cash dispenser section. After a half minute, currency notes go back in the machine as per the command in its programme. However, the accused used to take out money by using a virtual bank of IDFC of the ATM machines. This is an act of evading the record of the transaction. The machine would record incomplete transaction and money were deposited in accounts of debit cardholders.

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The accused, who were arrested by Nagpur police, committed similar frauds at Nagpur, Mumbai, Nashik, Midnapur, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Vishakhapatnam, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

They purchased a car to visit different cities. They confessed that they used stolen money for making merry in Goa and Mumbai.