Mumbai Crime: Large network who launder money from foreigners' ATM cards busted

On Thursday Mumbai crime branch busted a larger network who would rob foreign nationals of their ATM card details The group would use those details on blank ATM cards and then transfer money from their foreign bank accounts to their Indian banksThe Mumbai crime branch arrested five persons identified as Mohamed Hasan Eqbal Shaikh 44 Mukesh Raju Sharma 40 Zuber Nissar Sayed 35 Fahim Bashir Shora Jammu Kashmir resident and Abu baker Mahamedsaab Sheikh Ghanvilkar 45The Police also recovered 65 fake credit debit cards 51 swiping machines and cheque books from various Indian bank accounts According to the police the gang has been operating since 2013 and since then have cheated over 2000 foreign nationals and NRIs Police also suspect that these accused have earned over 40 crores in rupeesTargets were foreign tourists placeDilip Sawant DCP crime branch told MidDay The accused first steal foreigners ATM details and then make fake ATM cards Shopkeepers then help the accused to swipe out money from the cards for which they are given a commissionPolice also found out through investigation that the accused were active in Mumbai Kullu Manali Goa Jaipur Bengaluru Himachal Pradesh Ludhiana and Chandigarh Money from these foreigners accounts would be deducted after the accused swiping fake cards on the shopkeepers machine and into his account After the shopkeepers withdrew the amount the money would be handed over to the culprits and the former would get a 30 percent commission The accused would operate in locations that were holiday spots for various foreign nationalsThe accused after they were arrested PicmiddayCase cracked on human intelligence Since 2013 the case did not come to light to the police and this helped the gang to operate smoothly After the crime branch identified that such a gang exists 5 teams worked on the case and cracked it in 20 daysCops also arrested a shopkeeper who provided his swiping machine for the culprits to use Other shop owners would hand over their respective cheque books After the transaction would be complete they would withdraw the cash from their accountPer card and Three swipe onlyDuring interrogation the crime branch found out that a single card could be used only 3 times With the help of portable swipe machines the accused kept a tab on the closing time of banks before they would swipe the card This would give them a second and third attempt at it since on some occasions the customer would block his card after a single transactionThe crime branch also found out that there were more than 50 bank accounts used by the accused and more than 30 shopkeepers who helped them with swipe machinesHowever the Defence Advocate Ajay Dube stated to MidDay No one in India has filed such complaints These are false statements by the police and my clients are wrongly accused in this caseThe culprits were present before the court and will be in police custody till 26th JuneCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever