VIJAYAWADA: The city police nabbed two cyber crime offenders on Friday and seized 17 SIM cards, two cell phones and six ATM cards, using which they stole around `6 lakh through online by knowing the secret PIN and CVV numbers.
According to police, Mallavarapu Ramesh Gandhi, 26, of Alampuram and Shaik Srinivasulu, 25, of Narsapuram in Kadapa district became experts in collecting the details of debit card numbers and observing secret pin by being in queue at ATMs.
Ramesh Gandhi, a science graduate, and Srinivas, a deserted army personnel, developed an interesting modus of operandi.
They both came to know that Andhra Bank Visa debit cards, which will expire in 2017, cannot generate One Time Password (OTP) and mobile alerts when online transactions are done with just ATM PIN.
Offenders also understood that the first eight digits of the card numbers are the same, but the last eight numbers vary.
With this careful understanding, they stalked many customers and successfully stole `6 lakh till now, in various cities including Visakhapatnam, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Vijayawada.
Later, they used to do online purchases and transfer the money to digital wallets such as Paytm, Airtel Money, Mobiquick and Oxyzen and all mobile money transfer applications.
Their success journey ended in Vijayawada when Divvela Sai Krishna filed a complaint with the Two-Town police on December 13 after losing `20,000 through an online transaction, without his knowledge.
During investigation, the police found that the amount, which was transferred to Paytm and later into Karur Vysya Bank account at Nijam Gate in Vijayawada, belonged to Mohammad Basith, an acquaintance with the duo. Basith came into contact with the two accused through their close friend Dinesh, who is currently absconding.
Vijayawada Deputy Commissioner of Police G Pala Raju said both the offenders did a lot of research in cyber crime operations, as they tried to steal money online in various ways and could not succeed. However, their tracks were traced and they were caught.