ATM fraud gang busted in Bhopal; accused had found a unique way to withdraw money

bhopal

Updated: May 12, 2015 22:42 IST

A gang was arrested on Tuesday for their alleged involvement in ATM fraud, the police claimed.

Gang members, Parvinder Singh, 27, a resident of Ludhiana, and Narendrajit Singh, 44, a resident of Faridabad, were caught while the third, Ravindra Singh alias Billa, managed to escape, according to the police.

Superintendent of police (Bhopal South) Anshuman Singh said gang targeted ATMs which didn't have a guard.

They reached the ATM at Pir Gate for not finding a guard. However, the security guard, Pushpendra, was in the backroom, who later confronted them.

The guard noted the car's number plate and informed the police about them.

During interrogation, it was revealed that the gang used ATM cards of friends and relatives and had found a unique way to withdraw money.

The police recovered 60 ATM cards of different banks, diaries containing record of transactions from them.

Though just R44,000 was recovered from them, the police said the diaries showed illegal transaction to the tune of R1.64 crore.

The police said the trio used to insert the ATM card and switch off the power supply (even before the transaction slip came out) while the cash was dispensed.

This way, the bank software couldn't register the transaction, considering it a system failure, and within a week it would again put the same amount in the person's account.

Interestingly, despite duping the banks of thousands, the fraud never got detected and the records didn't show the money was withdrawn.

This unique modus operandi kept the trio out of suspicion of the bankers.

Moreover, they used to withdraw money from different banks' ATM. For example, if they have an ATM card of X bank, they would withdraw money from Y.

Investigators say bank officials would be contacted to inform them about the loophole. The amount stolen wasn't as much perhaps for the banks to take a serious note of it.

The accused have so far cheated 17 banks across India.