E-commerce delivery executive among 4 held for ATM fraud

The Noida police on Saturday said it has arrested four men, including a delivery executive for e-commerce firms, who have allegedly duped scores of people by fraudulently swapping their debit cards on the pretext of helping them with withdrawals at ATM kiosks.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Ranvijay Singh said the accused, who have been working as a gang since 2019, would also clone ATM cards of gullible people using skimmers.

Police said it has seized 42 ATM cards, 41 Aadhaar cards and 13 mobile phones from the gang’s possession and estimated that the fraud committed by them could be worth crores of rupees but exact details of finances are being ascertained.

The gang has been busted by officials of the Sector 58 police station under the supervision of ACP (Noida 2) Rajneesh Verma, Singh said, adding that the mastermind of the group has been identified but is at large.

“One person, Jai Prakash Verma, was arrested first and when checked, his bank account showed transactions of Rs 34.50 lakh over the last two years, raising suspicion about his activities. The matter was probed and his three other associated were also held,” Singh told reporters.

The police said the gang had three modes of duping people.

“They would stand at an ATM kiosk and wait for some gullible person to come for withdrawal. There, on the pretext of helping the person, they would note their pin code and stealthily exchange their ATM card with theirs. Later, they would take out money using the stolen ATM card,” Singh said.

“The gang also had ATM cloning machines which they used to clone cards. Not only would they use the cloned cards for illegal withdrawals, but also used the details of bank accounts of targeted persons for making financial transactions,” the officer said.

Elaborating on the third method, Verma said, “One of the accused, Jai Prakash, worked as a delivery executive for e-commerce companies. During delivery of items, he would carry cloning machines and insisted on swiping the customers cards for payments.” The ACP also cautioned people to be cautious while conducting financial transactions with strangers or online.

Meanwhile, Singh said police have also recovered some forged Aadhaar cards from the accused which were used for opening bank accounts to facilitate fraudulent transactions.

Police have recovered 42 ATM cards which had transactions of Rs 34 to Rs 35 lakh each, suggesting a large-scale fraud by the gang whose details are under investigation.

Those arrested have been identified as Jai Prakash Verma, Armaan, Tito Das and Neeraj Kumar, the police said.

An FIR was lodged in the case under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 467, 468, and 471 (related to forgery), 120B (criminal conspiracy) while the accused have also been booked under provisions of the Information Technology Act, police added.

Police have urged people to immediately report cyber frauds at the dedicated helpline number 1930 or 112.