Nepal trips between card cloning mischief

Lalbazar, West Bangal: The two Romanians arrested on suspicion of masterminding the ATM fraud in Calcutta involving card data theft through skimming devices had entered the country separately on tourist visas and visited Nepal more than once during their two-month stay in the city, according to investigators.

Ovidiu Simion, 31, and Dumitru Caling, 32, told the police they were “holidaying” in India but were unable to explain why they were in possession of 18 “blank” cards holding encrypted account data skimmed from ATMs in Calcutta, Delhi, Haryana, Kohima, Bhubaneswar, Rajasthan and Patna.

“It appears that each of these cards has been used more than once to clone stolen data. There are multiple PINs assigned to each of them,” said an officer in Lalbazar, the city police headquarters.

Investigators have yet to find out why the duo visited Nepal.

Ovidiu had entered India in February while Dumitru arrived in May. They were detained in Delhi on Friday after being found loitering near one of the ATMs under watch. These are the ATMs where cloned cards had been used to siphon off money from several bank accounts belonging to residents of Calcutta.

The Romanian nationals were brought to the city and produced in court on Saturday. They were remanded in police custody till August 18.The two men – one of them fixes windowpanes for a living back home and the other is an automobile mechanic – had stayed in a business hotel named Regenta Orkos in Kasba whenever they were in the city. The police have collected CCTV footage from the hotel but have yet to confirm if the people in it include the two arrested Romanians.

“I will not be able to divulge the details of their stay. I have told everything to the police,” said the security in-charge of the hotel when Metro contacted him on Saturday evening.

The police suspect that the duo is part of a larger team of five to six foreign nationals who fixed skimming devices on ATMs. It is still unclear if more than two members of the gang had visited the city at any time.

The police have so far found at least three ATMs “compromised” – one each of Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. Till late on Saturday, the number of complaints about money being illegally withdrawn from bank accounts stood at 82.

In all these instances, cash was withdrawn from ATMs in Delhi.

At least 610 cards had been used in the three compromised ATMs in Calcutta since April.

An officer who is part of the investigating team said there were “leads” about the data theft gang having links with a retired colonel of the Indian Army who is currently in Tihar Jail in connection with a card cloning racket.

“We are also on the lookout for an autorickshaw driver in Delhi who we suspect provided them logistical support,” the officer said. The Telegraph India