Turkish fraudsters withdrew Rs 16 lakh using cloned cards
The two are part of a card cloning gang and their two associates had already escaped to Istanbul, Assam police officers have said.
Two Turkish nationals, who have been booked in 46 cases for allegedly stealing debit card data by installing skimmers in ATMs in Assam, and were arrested last week from Colaba, have revealed that they withdrew Rs16 lakh cash using cloned cards from Mumbai’s ATM kiosks.
The two are part of a card cloning gang and their two associates had already escaped to Istanbul, Assam police officers have said.
The arrested accused revealed that they had chosen Mumbai because if they wanted to flee India, it would be easy for them to get flights to Istanbul, the police said. Most of the ATMs used by the gang are located in south Mumbai. Unlike other card cloning gangs, this gang had cloned the cards using stolen data within 4-5 days and withdrawn money, the police said. In similar crimes committed by foreigners earlier, they took at least around a month to clone the cards, the police said.
Last Wednesday, Colaba police had detained Emrah Igdi, 33, and Abdul Halik Yurgan, 42, from a hotel following a request from Assam Police. A laptop had also been seized. The next day, a team from Assam Police took their transit remand from a local court and took them to Assam for further probe. In Assam, the local court remanded Igdi and Yurgan to seven days in police custody.
“Their interrogation has revealed after stealing debit card data of Assamese people by fitting skimmers and hidden cameras in the ATMs machines, they cloned the cards and withdrew money from Mumbai’s ATM kiosks,” said Jayant Singh, deputy commissioner of police, Assam Police. An Assam police officer said the two accused and their two associates had come to India from Indonesia a few months ago on tourist visa. “They installed skimmers in ATM machines in Guwahati in two phases. While first two managed to escape the country, the other two were caught,” the officer said.
Assam Police have secured evidence against the two accused in the form of CCTV footage.
“While we were looking for them in the Assam hotels, they got wind of it and fled to Kolkata and travelled to Mumbai. Since we got to know that they planned to escape to Istanbul, we shared their information with Mumbai Police and the two were caught,” an Assam police officer said.
Assam Police had also got Look Out Circular (LOCs) notices issued against them at all the exit points of the country.Assam Police have charged the two accused under sections 379 (theft) and 420 (cheating) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) in their case.The police suspect that the accused may have committed the fraud in other cities and states as well.