Bengaluru: The Banasawadi police have busted a racket run by Africans, who were allegedly involved in skimming of debit cards and fraudulently withdrawing money from bank accounts of unsuspecting customers. The police have arrested seven persons including two women in this connection and have recovered cash worth Rs 21.4 lakh from them.
The accused are identified as Eremhen Smart, 33, of Nigeria, Martin Nsamba, 25, Jolly alias Nambooze Jolly, 23, Tinah, 23, all the three from Uganda, Kenny alias Ajany Kehind, 32, Oloadeji Olayemi, 34, both hailing from Nigeria, and Vikram Rao Nikkam, 40, of Bengaluru.
Police said that Mrs. Payal Mandal, a resident of Kammanahalli and an employee of an MNC, filed a complaint on January 7, stating about a fraudulent withdrawal of money to the tune of Rs 94,318 from her HDFC bank account.
After this, within a week's time, 11 similar cases were registered in Banasawadi station alone. On analysing the statements of the accounts of all the complainants pertaining to fraudulent transactions, it appeared that there were some similarities.
"Investigations revealed that the accused persons had stolen the security details of the debit cards using a skimming machine in an ATM kiosk at Kammanahalli. Further scrutiny and analysis of the statements of accounts showed that compromised data were used by some unknown persons and fake cards were generated. Using the fake cards, fraudulent transactions were done through a tours and travels agent, who was associated with via.com travel website," the police said.
"The information about the agent was gathered from the authorities of via.com and the agent was traced. When questioned, he revealed that African nationals were approaching him to make online bookings of hotels and flights, but he was not aware of the fraud. Incriminating evidence was found and information of the suspects was gathered from the agent. It led to the arrest of Eremhen Smart on January 16. Two mobile phones were seized from him and cash worth Rs 2.64 lakh was recovered. Also, Rs 2.40 lakh that was in the account of the agent of via.com was freezed," the police said.
Further, based on his information, the other accused were arrested. "Smart also revealed that the kingpin of the racket was Hillary Kiegen alias Tiger, a Kenyan national, who was in Goa.
A team was sent to Goa to nab Keigen, but the police could not trace him. Other accused Tinah, Jolly, Kenny and Olayeni were arrested after it was found that they were swiping the fake cards. Jolly, who is part of the conspiracy, had booked magnetic card reader through the company, Card-Tec India pvt. Ltd. at the behest of Martin and it was delivered to her address at KFC in Calangute in Goa.
After the arrest of Martin, Jolly had destroyed the magnetic machine and disposed it in a lake in Dharwad," the police added. There are totally 14 persons, 10 men and four women, involved in the conspiracy and only seven are arrested now. The team is operating in both Karnataka and Goa.
