Oct 06 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)
Skimming racket busted, 3 Romanians arrested
Ahmed Ali
Mumbai:


A major inter national skimming racket was busted by the Vinobha Bhave Nagar police of Kurla last week with the arrest of three Romania nationals.
With these arrests, the police claim to have solved several undetected skimming cases registered across the city.

The three Romanians--Aulin Budoai, Marian Grahma and Mew Ionel--came to India in June on tourist visas and rented a two-bedroom flat in an upmarket area in Bandra. The police raided the house and recovered Rs 28.5 lakh cash, two laptops, 497 debit cards with magnetic code, mini-spy cameras, skimmers and five phones. Cops have frozen their passports and intimated the Romania embassy .

The gang would reccee ATMs and identify unguarded ones. They would enter the kiosks under the pretext of withdrawing money while their aides would keep a watch. “They would stick the skimmers ne ar the card-reading slots and the cameras near the keyboards. The machi nes would, throughout the day , extract data from cards of people using the ATM and the cameras would record the PIN. Later, the accused would come and collect the machines. Using the recorded data, the perpetrators made duplicate ATM cards and used them to withdraw cash,“ said Deven Bharti, joint commissioner.

The racket came to light after a Kurla resident went to the police, complaining that Rs 36,500 had been withdrawn from her account four times. “We found the cash was withdrawn from a Kurla (W) ATM. We zeroed in on the accused from CCTV footage,“ said an officer.

“They duped many in Italy , Romania and other European nations. We'll get in touch with Interpol,“ said assistant commissioner Srirang Nadgowda.