An informer helped Girinagar police arrest a gang of six from Tamil Nadu for allegedly attempting to steal data of debit and credit cards by using a electronic skimming machine on Sunday.
According to police, the gang approached the owner of a jewellery shop and said they could attach a machine to his card reader to illegally obtain data of debit and credit cards.
They attempted to lure the shop owner by promising to share a percentage of the money they stole with the information.
However, the shop owner was a police informer who promptly alerted officials.
A police team nabbed K Thirumurugan (38), S Raja Mohammed (29), Shanmugam (32), V Kaliswaram (49), Shankar (30) and Suneel (40).
Police also seized a car, two laptop computers and a card skimming machine from them. The gang reportedly confessed they had bought the skimming machine from Mumbai through a contact operating out of Chennai.
According to police, the accused had mastered the art of transferring the stolen data to dummy cards electronically.
They planned to swipe these cards to withdraw cash and make online purchases.
While the gang reportedly claimed this was their first attempt at card skimming, the police are investigating whether they had used the machine elsewhere.