Picture used for representational purpose only



LUCKNOW: The cyber cell of Lucknow police busted a Romanian gang and arrested its three members from Delhi for withdrawing over Rs 2 crore by cloning and stealing data of 500 debit and credit cards after tampering 32 ATMs in Lucknow.

The accused were identified as Tamasha Florine , 24, Bunus Agustin, 26, and Maldovan Florine, 25. However, the gang’s mastermind Boario Andrea and his aide Dorel Austin managed to escape. Andrea lives in Delhi and is wanted in card cloning cases in Delhi and Gujarat.

It’s for the first time that a Romanian gang has been held for a crime in UP. The gang was also behind ATMs tampering in Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra and even Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan.

Police recovered pin-hole cameras, spray colours, gluegun, skimmer devices, 150 blank ATM cards, 300 fake ATM cards, laptops, and Rs 1 lakh from their possession.

Nodal officer, cyber cell, Abhay Mishra said the accused were identified after the cyber cell scanned the CCTV footage of tampered ATMs in Gomtinagar, Krishnanagar, Aliganj and Mahanagar.

Mishra said three gang members used to recce the ATMs located in deserted spots. Next, they would entered the targeted ATM wearing caps and sunglasses to avoid getting identified. He said they used to target the ATMS early in the morning.

“After entering ATMs, one member used to stand near its door so that nobody could come inside, while the other two used to place a thin device into the payment terminal of the ATM. They would place a pinhole camera above the keypad. These devices stored the data of the users. They would leave the ATM and return in the evening or even after a week to collect the device which had stored the data,” Mishra said. “After collecting the data, the gang members would return to Delhi and transfer stolen ATM data into a microchip. This way they cloned over 500 credit and debit cards from Lucknow alone. They withdrew money from ATMs as well online. The gang also used to call customers posing as officials and take details then conduct online shopping,” explained Mishra.

The three accused are school dropouts. Tamasha Florine studied till Class 10, Agustin is a class 8 dropout while Maldovan has studied till Class 1.

Tamasha told TOI that Boario Andrea called unemployed youths from Romania to Delhi and taught them the tricks of tampering ATMs in a ‘classroom’ by showing videos on methods to tamper ATMs and also reaction time of the police in such cases.

