BENGALURU: Central Crime Branch (CCB) police on Saturday arrested a gang three men including a Sri Lankan national on charges of cloning credit cards and using them in electronics shops in the city.
The prime suspect and Sri Lankan national Divyan (30) was involved in similar fraud in Chennai before he came in contact with the other arrested accused Nawaz Shariff and Nadeem Shariff. The gang was stealing data of credit card holders to create fake cards and would swipe them at shopping centres. Divyan lived in Chennai illegally before he came to Bengaluru a few years ago. He had later trained his associates on creating fake credit cards.
On June 21, the gang bought three LED TVs for `1.10 lakh at a showroom in Doddakallasandra. The showroom’s owner filed a police complaint after the bank declined to process the transaction later.
Based on credible tip off, CCB officials raided a flat in an apartment at Jalahalli and nabbed the trio. Police found 270 cards without magnetic tape, 114 duplicate credit cards belonging to various banks, 36 card swiping machines, a card reader and lamination machines used for creating duplicate cards.
During the interrogation, trio told police they had given fake documents to purchase swiping machines from banks. They also said they were in contact with a few shopkeepers, who would swipe the duplicate cards for a 20% commission.
Soon after the arrest of Divyan, Chennai police have sought his custody for further interrogation as he was involved in similar crimes in Chennai before he came to Bengaluru.