Cops say they may be acting on instructions from online 'Nigerian fraud' operators

Think twice before you give your ATM card to any person you don't know too well. Since the trick known as the Nigerian fraud has become well known, the people behind it have modified their methods and are now focusing on ATM card fraud.

They offer money to people who can make their acquaintances part with ATM cards under some pretext. The fraudsters then proceed to lighten the bank account of the holders of the ATM card.

New tricks
A Nigerian fraud involves sending an email to people that tells them they are the lucky winners of a large amount ofu00a0 cash but will need to pay a transaction fee to get the money. But as people had by now wisened up to the trick, the police said the fraudsters were now employing other means, such as the ATM card trick.

The police said they stumbled on the ATM card trick when they arrested two people in connection with an online fraud case.

They said the arrested men, who were from Mumbai, revealed details of how the ATM card fraud is committed at the instance of the people behind the infamous online Nigerian fraud.

The police said the kingpins ask people who do odd jobs to work as their links and approach anybody they are in contact with and request them for their ATM card.

The police said the holder of an ATM card is told by the person taking the card that he is expecting some money from a third party and needs a bank account where the sender can deposit the money and of course, he also needs the ATM card so that he can withdraw the money sent to the card-holder's account.

Original case
This new method came to light during the interrogation of two fraudsters in an online banking case. Police Inspector (Crime) B B Ingale of the Samarth Police station is investigating the case. Ingale said he came to know of the new method when he was investigating a case in which a woman with an ATM card was duped of Rs 1.35 lakh.

He said the two arrested in the case claimed that some of their friends had asked them to take ATM cards from people they knew and hand it over to them for a short while.

Rs 1.35 lakh gone
While the Samarth police station officials were investigating the online banking fraud, they learnt of the ATM card trick when they arrested the second person in connection with the case. In the case, Janani Bhaskar Iyer (42), a resident of Rasta Peth, was duped of Rs 1.35 lakh when the money was transferred from her account without her knowledge.

Iyer found the Rs 1.35 lakh had been transferred to four different accounts on November 20 and lodged a complaint with the Samarth police station on February 8.

The Samarth police station officials nabbed Pradip Vishnupad Gupta (22) of K/3 Santosh Nagar Market, Goregaon (East), Mumbai, on April 4 in the case. Gupta was sent to magisterial custody. At 9 pm on Wednesday, the police arrested one more person from Mumbai, Afzal Khan Abdul Qayum Khan (24), in the case. The resident of Shashtrinagar, Mohmadi Masjid chawl, Kalina, Santacruz, was remanded in police custody till Monday.