Mumbai: Romanian national held trying to use cloned debit cards

The way the cloned debit card system works is that fraudsters install skimmers at ATMs that copy debit card details. It is then uploaded on to another plastic. Fraudsters also put small cameras near the ATM keypads as they would need the PIN to carry out transactions. “Sometimes, when the ATM PIN is not clearly seen, they write down variables on the debit card that are to be tried,” an officer said. When the police team questioned Mariyan about the debit cards, he gave them evasive replies after which he was arrested.

During investigation, when the police checked the debit cards details, it came to light that all of them were in the names of UP residents. When the police checked Mariyan’s details, they found that he had come to the country on a tourist visa nearly six months ago. “He initially stayed in Delhi. We suspect that during this time, he set up skimmers at ATMs in UP. After that he went to Gujarat where we suspect he withdrew money and then came to the city. Usually in such cases, fraudsters prefer withdrawing money from fraudulent cards from states other than the ones where FIRs are registered,” an officer linked to the case said.

An officer said Mariyan would withdraw money from ATMs at night as there were fewer people around and he would cover his face with a mask so that he was not identified in the CCTV camera footage retrieved from ATM booths. He would stay at hotels in the city and hardly spent two days in a hotel before changing location.