BENGALURU: A couple arrested by the city cyber crime branch for debit/credit card cheating, have been handed to the Mumbai cyber crime branch.
The city cyber crime police have confirmed that the couple, Manoj Kumar (41) and his wife Neetha (38), have cheated debit/credit cardholders across the country and abroad.
An officer said the couple had stayed in the USA, Malaysia and Hungary for a while before operating from Bengaluru. Neetha was running the Luctan Salon on 27th Main Road, Sector 1, HSR Layout.
“We received a complaint from a showroom in UB City from where Neetha had bought dress materials worth Rs 1.40 lakh. When complainant Arun Kumar was questioned, he said he had visited a beauty parlour run by Neetha and used his credit card to pay the bill. The couple used a skimming machine to clone Arun’s card and Neetha had shopped in UB City with the card,” the officer said.
“It was not easy to trace and nab the accused as they had shifted their residence when we went to arrest them. The accused resided in an apartment in Madiwala, but after getting to know that they are under the police radar, shifted to an apartment in HSR Layout. We thought we lost. Police officials later visited the salon to get
hair cut. It took two days to corner the couple without giving out any clues,” he added.
The couple had taken two flats in different apartments and were paying around `50,000 as rent. The duo had a swiping machine in their salon and accepted all types of credit and debit cards. The police said Manoj was convicted by a Mumbai court in 2003 for similar offences.