Jammu and Kashmir Police on the lookout for Mumbai-based kingpin and a Nigerian.
With the arrest of four persons — two Kashmiris and Mumbaikars each — in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Police claimed on Tuesday to have busted an inter-state, or possibly international, gang of cyber fraudsters.
Fraud kingpin Sumear Sheikh of Mumbai and a Nigerian accused are, however, absconding. A J&K Police team is on its way to the metropolis to arrest them.
The arrested Kashmiris are Nisar Ahmad Sheikh and Abid Majeed Khan, both from Srinagar, while the Mumbai accused have been identified as Shafiq Abdul Aziz Sheikh and Faisal Khan.
Police said the gang would clone debit and credit cards to withdraw huge sums from the accounts of various people in the country and abroad.
“They [the accused] would create websites similar to those of banks and use information supplied by account-holders while logging in to create duplicate debit cards using a device called skimmer or card writer. Another method they employed was card-linking, in which a genuine card is digitally altered. Such an altered card, whenever swiped, automatically directs withdrawal from another account,” Showkat Hussain, superintendent of police, north Srinagar, said.
The fraud came to light on December 30 when Zahoor Ahmed, proprietor of Shahjee Jewellers, Srinagar, received a phone call from HDFC Bank to verify a transaction by an NRI.
“One of the accused, Nisar Ahmad, swiped fake HDFC and SBI cards to digitally transfer Rs1.35 lakh as advance payment to Shahjee Jewellers for the purchase of gold ornaments worth Rs1.80 lakh. The payment was registered in the name of an NRI. After HDFC Bank officials told Zahoor Ahmed that the transaction was fraudulent, he lodged a police complaint,” Hussain said.
Police soon arrested Nisar, who revealed the Mumbai connect. “Around 18 fake debit/credit cards of various banks, a few data cards, mobile phones and some transaction slips were recovered from the accused,” Hussain said.
Preliminary investigation revealed that Nisar came in contact with Shafiq and Sumear in the last week of October 2010 when they had come to Srinagar. “After they left, Shafiq remained in constant touch with Nisar and discussed the fraud. Sumear again flew to Srinagar via Hyderabad on December 22 with two Mumbaikars and stayed in a local hotel,” Hussain said.
They, in connivance with Nisar, made digital transactions on December 23, 24 and 30 for Rs95,500, Rs95,500 and Rs1.35 lakh at Hoor Trading Corporation, Karan Nagar, and Shahjee Jewellers using five fake cards.
“Unlike Shahjee Jewellers, Abid Majeed Khan of Hoor Traders facilitated the fraudulent transactions using his POS (point of sale/service) machine. Sumear left for Mumbai after three days, but the other two accused stayed back with Nisar, who was posing as Samir Bhat,” Hussain said.
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