Credit card forgery detected, 3 London based Sri Lankan Tamils held
Chennai, May. 18 (PTI): Three London based Sri
Lankan Tamils were arrested today after they were allegedly found using
forged credit cards to withdraw large sums of money from ATMs in some cities in Tamil Nadu. A sum of Rs 6.5 lakhs in cash, 156 forged cards, six mobile phones and a four-wheeler were seized from Rajaseelan, Ramesh, and Ratan Rajan, Assistant Commissioner, Central Crime Branch, Baalu told PTI. After committing the crime, the culprits would usually leave for London with their booty, he said. The trio were part of a larger network,which was forging credit cards, with the information "stolen" from card-reader machines in a petrol bunk in London. While the data in a card was "copied" from the machine, the PIN number used by the customer was recorded through a video camera. Later these were embossed on a fresh card and the cards rotated in Tamil Nadu, Baalu said. The culprits had come to the city on May 10 and had travelled to some cities including Salem, Madurai, Coimbatore and Tiruchirapalli."They withdrew over Rs. 20 lakhs of which we have seized Rs.6.5 lakhs," Baalu said. He said security guards manning the ATMs had been alerted to look for colour variation between the forged international credit cards and the original ones. Last week, one Gunasegaran was arrested when he attempted to use one such forged card in the city. His interrogation led to the arrest of the three others.