Alert Vikhroli citizen help police nab Romanian card cloning conman

Illustration/Uday Mohite

The Parksite police arrested a 49-year-old Romanian fraudster, Caravan Marian, after an alert citizen spotted him at an ATM in Vikhroli. The card-cloning Caravan had gone all the way from Romania to India.

An alert citizen calls the police control room after spotting a masked man inside a Canara Bank ATM at the Vikhroli T-junction

He cloned cards in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, before heading to Mumbai to withdraw money from local ATMs. An alert citizen had called the police on spotting a masked man inside the Canara Bank ATM at the Vikhroli T-junction, assuming that he was burgling cash.

The Parksite Police arrive and see a suspicious man wearing a respirator mask in the ATM booth

When the Parksite police got there, though, they discovered a much bigger racket - Caravan had come to all the way from Romania to India to carry out a card-cloning racket across multiple states.

The suspect notices the police and makes a run for it

The incident took place on November 10. An officer from Parksite police station recalled, "The alert citizen had seen him withdrawing money from the same ATM the day before, too. As soon as we received the call, our night patrol team rushed there. The accused tried to escape, but we chased him for 600 to 700 metres before catching him. We also got his bag, which had around R3.7 lakh in cash inside, along with 60 cloned cards."

The cops chase him for around 700 metres before catching him. They recover a bag of cash from him too

"During questioning, the accused told us that he had landed at Delhi airport in June on a tourist visa, and cloned hundreds of ATM cards there, then in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, and in Gujarat. He arrived in Mumbai 15 days ago and started withdrawing money at different locations," the officer added.

Cops identify him as Romanian national, Caravan Marian, and bust his multi-state card-cloning racket after finding 60 cards with him. He reveals how he arrived in India in June and cloned cards across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, before heading to Mumbai for mass cash withdrawals. They recover Rs 3.7 lakh from him. Illustration/Uday Mohite

The cops are trying to ascertain where else he withdrew money from, and are also looking into his earlier visit to India in 2015.

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