Police busts ATM card skimming racket in Thane; 2 arrested

With the arrest of two Mumbai-based persons, police in Thane district of Maharashtra Wednesday claimed to have busted an ATM card skimming racket.

According to police, the accused would steal the ATM passwords of bank account holders residing in Mira Bhayandar township and syphon off money from their accounts.

"The duo was arrested based on a tip-off," Assistant Superintendent of Police Atul Kulkarni said. Following several complaints of cash getting deducted from the bank accounts of people through suspected cloned ATM cards, Thane District Rural SP Dr Shivaji Rathod had directed the police personnel to nab the accused, he said.

"As part of the plan, a police team kept a watch near a bar on Ghod Deo Phatak road a couple of days back and arrested Kishore Nayya (33) and Hemant Jain (32)," Kulkarni said.

"During their interrogation, the accused told the police that they would collect the ATM card data through the skimmers placed on the ATMs. After knowing the password, they would syphon off funds from the bank accounts," police said.

Besides eight fake ATM cards, one skimmer and three mobile phones, the police also recovered other accessories that are used in making fake ATM cards, police said.

The duo was booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc) and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and the IT Act of 2008.

Among other things, the police are in the process of collecting information like the total amount syphoned off by the accused so far, the official said.