Hyderabad, February 14: Two members of a Mumbai-based gang involved in using cloned credit cards of customers were today nabbed by the Punjagutta police from a leading jewellery store and property worth several lakhs were seized from them. However, another member of the gang managed to escape.
Punjagutta police inspector K Ashoka Chakravarthy said the gang is run by a Nigerian, Okasu alias Mallick, who gets information about credit cards through his agents and clones them.
The agents collect the Pin number and other details of the card when they are swiped at business establishments.
Mallick then makes fake cards and distributes them to his agents across various cities. “The agents move around make purchases on the cards. The purchased property is sold and the cash is distributed in 70:30 ratio between Mallick and the agents,” Chakravarthy said.
Mallick’s agents, Imran and Rajesh of Mumbai and Kanchan Singh of Bangalore came to the city on February 11 to make purchases on a card. Kanchan is a singer in private bars in Bangalore.
“They purchased a television and three laptops from Big Bazar at Abids and also gold worth `1.16 lakh on the same day. They again went to Big Bazar at Ameerpet where the management grew suspicious and the trio left without making any transaction,” the inspector said. But while leaving the mall, they left behind the credit card and the management informed the police who immediately alerted jewellery stores and commercial establishments about their suspicious movements. They also kept a watch at jewellery stores.
Today, the trio came to Kalyan jewellers at Punjagutta where the management grew suspicious and alerted the police. Police nabbed Kanchan Singh and Imran but Rajesh escaped.
The racket would be exposed completely once they nab Mallick, police said. Three laptops, a TV set, Rs 30,000, 40 fake credit cards and two swiping machines were seized from them.
–Agencies