HYDERABAD: A three-member gang that managed to look over the shoulders of over 200 ATM users, collect their data and siphon off over a whopping Rs 60 lakh, was finally arrested on Monday. The trio, kingpin Manish Kumar, his uncle Manjesh Kumar and friend Vinod Kumar are school dropouts from Bihar. They diverted stolen money to e-wallets to lead a luxurious life of shopping and air travel.
Police have gotten some interesting information from the gang. The trio enjoyed air travel and spent most of the money stolen from others on airfares. They preyed on customers using ATM machines located in and around the Shadnagar bus stop in Rangareddy. So far, police have gathered the details of 120 customers who have lost around Rs 25 lakh.
The racket, which was operational for more than a year, was finally busted after a man having an account with ICICI bank reported that he had lost Rs 3.9 lakh from his account in a series of transactions that happened within a matter of five minutes. Based on the clues and technical evidences, the accused were identified and nabbed from their hometown in Bihar.
Manish Kumar, who was working as a plumber in Shadnagar, conceived a plan to make easy money, say police. He used Youtube to learn about online shopping and e-commerce websites that do not ask for OTP number. He shared his plans with the other two accomplices and the trio started targeting customers visiting ATM booths at Shadnagar and surrounding villages.
The accused would pose as customers, stand beside other customers while they used the machine and observe their debit card details. Later, they would check the validity of the details over mobile applications, and even call the bank customer care to check the account balance. Based on the balance, they would order laptops, mobile phones or buy air tickets without using the OTP number.
“They are likely to have collected details of over 200 customers,” says Cyberabad commissioner VC Sajjanar. “While booking products, they gave different addresses, in and around Shamshabad, Shadnagar and also in Bihar, Kerala, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh,” the commissioner added.