Always keep your CREDIT CARD in sight, when you give it for swiping......

Always
keep your CREDIT
CARD in sight,
when you give it for swiping......





The accused (left) used a card-reader (right) to transfer the data

On to a PC for making a duplicate credit card



They Would Make Duplicates Of Credit Cards Used By Customers At A Juhu Hotel

TIMES NEWS NETWORK



Mumbai: The next time you decide to use your credit card on a shopping trip,
think again. The Mumbai police have busted a hitech credit card fraud which
they believe is the crime of the future.



Four gadget-savvy youngsters from Andheri, two of them software engineers, got
together to earn a quick buck and ended up ripping off over Rs 3 lakh of
citizens' money. The foursome were arrested by the Juhu police on Tuesday.
Interestingly, one of the boys was all set to leave for the
United State
s for a job in a wellplaced computer firm ..

According to the police, the mastermind of the gang is 19-year-old Leo Paul. A
second-year engineering student at a Bandra college, Paul had read about a
magnetic card-reading device which could store data once you swipe a card
through it. Data from at least 12 such cards could be stored at a time. Paul
realised that if credit cards were swiped though the machine, the personal data
of a customer stored on it could be accessed. He then teamed with Akash Kamble,
a 19-year-old Lokhandwala resident, and ordered the card-reader from
USA , using the Internet, since it's not
available in India
.



"The boys befriended a waiter at Kings International hotel at Juhu to take
their plan ahead. Every time someone ate a meal in the hotel and paid by credit
card, the waiter would discreetly swipe it through the magnetic card-reader,
which is no more than 6-inches long and can be stored in the pocket,'' said
investigating officer

Ramesh Nangare .



Once the waiter was done, he would hand over the device to Paul who would
download the data from the cards on to Kamble's personal computer. The duo
would then feed the data into blank cards, available in the grey market. The
cards were now ready to be used in

Shopping malls and theatres, or to withdraw money from an ATM.



Senior inspector Pradeep Shinde said that the boys forged information from more
than 22 cards in this manner. The fraud came to light after officials from HSBC
bank complained to the police. The cops quizzed customers whose cards had been
duplicated and discovered they had all visited Hotel Kings International and
paid by credit card. Investigators then caught the waiter who led them to the
four youngsters. Paul, Kamble and the two other collegians identified as Manoj
Chauhan (24) and Mahesh Valani (20), have been remanded to police custody.



NEW-AGE CRIME



A portable magnetic cardreader can store data from around a dozen cards tha t
have been swiped through it; made in China, the device was bought on the net
for Rs 18,000.



The card-reader is connected to a computer and the entire data is transferred
there.



The data is then stored in blank cards available in the grey market..



These duplicate cards can now be used to buy a fortune and also withdraw money
from ATMs.