NEW DELHI: A Nigerian man has been arrested for cloning debit cards of over 100 people and withdrawing money fraudulently from their accounts. The victims had swiped their cards at ATMs in upscale south Delhi colonies.

The man identified as Kingsley had a unique modus operandi. Police said he would identify an ATM kiosk that didn’t have a security guard around. He would go inside, rip open the card swiping slot of the machine and place a scanner behind it. Black tape would hold the device in place. Next, Kingsley would place a camera somewhere on the machine so that its focus would be on the keypad.

Whenever an ATM user swiped his card, the scanner would capture the details while the camera would record the PIN as the customer keyed it in. Once the customer stepped out, Kingsley would go inside, fetch the card reader and camera, and clone the card with the details. Then he would swipe the cloned card at other ATMs and withdraw money. In this way, customer after customer fell victim to Kingsley’s fraud.

Until one day, a woman who operated an ATM near Hari Nagar found a large transaction done from her card long after she had withdrawn money. She immediately reported the matter to the police, who then obtained footage of CCTV cameras installed nearby.
Police spotted two black Africans entering the kiosk and got suspicious. They tracked one of them to a locality near Uttam Nagar. It was Kingsley. He was arrested.

During interrogation, Kingsley said that he had placed similar gadgets at an unguarded ATM near Rajendra Dhaba in Safdarjung Enclave and another in Mumbai with the help of his friend seen in the footage.
“We have seized the devices used to clone the cards and are scanning through Kingsley’s laptops to find out the identities of the other customers. We have so far recovered the details of 110 customers in Delhi,” said DCP (southwest) Surender Kumar.
A theft case has been registered and efforts are on to trace Kingsley’s associate.

Source:- Indiatimes