A 26-year-old man was recently arrested by the Khar police for allegedly stealing the credit card data of an Andheri woman and using a cloned card to buy a high-end mobile phone.
The police said the man, Vishwajit Chetni, has been involved in several similar cases and offences have been registered at various police stations. They suspect that Chetni is a part of a larger racket and are on the lookout for the mastermind.
The matter came to light after the woman, Swati Kulkarni, received an SMS alert that a mobile phone worth Rs 40,000 was made with the credit card at Vijay Sales store, Pali village, Khar (West).
The woman enquired with her bank and realised that her credit card was intact and was probably cloned. The 39-year-old approached the police who registered a case of cheating (section 420) and forgery (section 468) under the Indian Penal Code and additional sections of the Information Technology Act.
S Varpe, police inspector, said, "The accused bought a Samsung Note using the cloned card. On receiving the complaint we visited the store and scanned the CCTV footage. We identified the man who got the card swiped after the purchase and asked the store managers to alert the staff at its branches."
As the police expected, the man visited the store's branch in Belapur where he ventured to make another purchase, but was caught after the police were called in.
"Chetni told us that he received 10 per cent of the value of goods bought in this manner from one John, who is involved in the cloning racket. We have set up a team to find the man behind the racket," the police official said.
Cases of cloning of bank cards have been on the rise over the past year. In one instance, the cards of 15 Mumbai policemen were cloned and used in distant countries like Greece, resulting in a loss of about Rs15.47 lakh.
Guard against cheating
The police explain that data from the credit or debit card is stolen (either at a store or an ATM) through a skimming device that subsequently transfers the data into another card which has a plain magnetic strip. The fraudsters then use the cloned card to make purchases or withdraw cash.
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