MUMBAI: Two brothers were arrested today for duping people at ATMs to the tune of several lakh rupees, police said.
Police said that Satendra Mishra (32) and Bhupendra Shivbahadur Mishra (35) used to watch over people's shoulders while the latter was using an ATM in order to memorise the PIN.
The duo, along with two to three more accomplices, would then get the victim to use another ATM machine saying that the first one was malfunctioning, said police.
An official explained that one member of the gang, meanwhile, would keep the victim's transaction session alive on the first machine.
Once the victim had left, the gang would withdraw money from the first machine, the official said.
He said that an investigation into this issue started after a leading bank approached police complaining about several such occurrences at their ATMs.
A Crime Branch official said that the gang has siphoned off at least Rs 7 lakh from 16 persons using this modus operandi with incidents spread over September and October last year.
Eight cases had also been registered at various police stations by victims complaining of the same modus operandi, he said.
He added that a case under relevant sections of the IPC and the IT Act had been registered at Kandivali station and a hunt was on for the accomplices of the two brothers.
The gang had carried out such incidents in areas like Samatanagar, Borivali Malad and Bhoiwada, the official informed.