13 who used credit cards at mall in camp cheated

Police look at card cloning angle, suspect role of person handling cash counter

A case has been registered with the police wherein 13 people who had made their last purchases at a mall in Camp two years ago claimed to have been cheated through fraudulent transactions later. The 13 people were cheated of Rs 3.73 lakh in 2009. Now the police are looking at the possibility of their cards having been cloned.


Duped: Thirteen people were cheated of Rs 3.73 lakh after they had
used their credit cards at a mall in Camp. The fraudulent transactions
were recorded in the months of September and October in 2009.
Representation pic

The investigation officer of City Bank has lodged a complaint regarding this incident. The case has been registered at the Cantonement police station under Information Technology Act Section 66(C) and (D).According to the complainant, an unknown person has duped 13 bank account holders by making fraudulent transaction by allegedly using their credit cards for several purchases.

The matter came to light when 13 of the account holders sounded off the bank about the occurrence. The individual complaints were registered in 2009 but the Cyber Crime Cell is now looking at them considering the common thread in them.

Purchases were made from the credit cards without the users using it. The police are looking at the possibility of the person handling the cash counter being involved in the fraud; the chances of his using a cloning machine has not been ruled out. Police Inspector Sangeeta Shinde Alfonso said: "All these transactions were recorded in the months of September and October in 2009. The case has been transferred to us recently."

Cloning Machine
The person handling the cash counters is suspected of swiping the cards on a cloning machine as the customer hands over the card for the transaction. This is the way the magnetic data is immediately accessed. Then the culprit, who may be an expert in software development, creates duplicate cards with the help of skimmers and card readers.