Siliguri cops bust ATM fraud racket- arrested persons are from South Delhi, West Delhi, New Delhi and Bihar

SNS, SILIGURI, 26 APRIL 2022 : The Siliguri Metropolitan Police has arrested four persons for running a racket that targeted elderly people who go to ATMs to withdraw money.

Police said three of the arrested persons were from Delhi, while another hailed from Bihar.

"The police received an alert that a gang of criminals from Bihar, who specialize in ATM fraud by skimming ATM cards, had been operating in and around Darjeeling, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Siliguri for the past some days. Immediately, the ground level intelligence network and electronic surveillance was intensified. Police stations of neighbouring districts were also alerted. Officers and police-men from the Bagdogra police station, with assistance from the Detective Department (DD), the special operations group of the Siliguri Metropolitan Police (SMP) and active cooperation of the Darjeeling District Rural Police, apprehended one SUV bearing Bihar registration number at Hansqua under the Bagdogra police station, in which there were four persons, including the driver," said the Assistant Commissioner of Police of the DD, SMP, Rajen Chettri.

The vehicle was heading towards Bihar. 

According to Mr Chettri, the swindlers would mainly target elderly citizens and cheat them on the pretext of helping them withdraw money from ATMs. The members of the gang spied on their ATM PINS by standing behind them, and offered help if they seemed not used to withdrawing money from the ATM counters. They would then exchange the cards with old ones.

"Their modus operandi was targeting elderly persons on the pretext of helping them withdraw money from ATM kiosks and exchanging the ATM card of the victim with another similar card. Afterwards, they used the Payswiff machine (POS) to transfer the money to their account.

The investigations have revealed that the gang had arrived in the town on 24 April and had already defrauded a person of Rs 40,000 at an ATM kiosk at Jalpai More same manner yesterday," Mr Chettri added.

Police said they found 91 ATM cards of different banks, POS machine used to swipe the cards, six mobile phones, and Rs 3000 in cash with the arrested men. The police have identified the accused persons as Sonu Kumar of South Delhi, Gagan Kumar of West Delhi, Subash Thakur from New Delhi and Mahamad Tamanne Nadal of Bihar. Police officers said a case had been registered against Gagan Kumar.