Kingpin credit-card-cloners of international ring caught with 2000 fake cards in Bengaluru

The main accused's wife supplied copycat machines to malls and then misused the credit card data
Kingpin credit-card-cloners of international ring caught with 2000 fake cards in Bengaluru
Kingpin credit-card-cloners of international ring caught with 2000 fake cards in Bengaluru
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Criminal Investigation Department officials have arrested two of three accused in an international credit and debit card fraud case from Kudlu gate area in Bengaluru on Thursday.

The police initiated a search after a tip-off that one of the accused was planning a large scale online cheating and was planning to move out of Bengaluru soon, reported Deccan Herald.

Thirty-three-year-old Neeta and Kiran were arrested, while the other accused Neeta’s husband Manoj Kumar alias Rajshekar is absconding. 

Hemant Nimbalkar, IGP CID (economic offences) said that they seized a debit/credit card printing machine, 2762 debit/credit cards without names and numbers and other things.

“Neeta, Manoj's wife, is key in the case as she did the job of transporter in the whole scam. She handled all the outside work of her husband. She supplied copycat machines to malls and shops and then collected them back with data they then misused,” said the investigator.

According to newspaper reports, the trio used skimming machines to get credit card data, cloned the cards and used them to withdraw money and make purchases.

Manoj and Neeta are repeat offenders.

The kingpin Manoj Kumar has been doing this for over 14 years across various states of India and has been caught by the police many times over the years. Police said that Cyber Crime department of CID arrested him and his wife in December 2015. He came out on bail and continued his operations.

“They provided EDCs to malls, business outlets and shops where the general public uses debit and credit cards. They would later take these machines back after paying a commission. Data captured during transactions gave them complete control over the cards,” police added.

Manoj was booked in the year 2002 by Chennai police and was also arrested in Mumbai by Maharashtra police in the year 2003, reportedBangalore Mirror.

From 2005 to 2010 he lay low, but over 4 cases were booked against him in 2011 in Tamil Nadu. He then fled to Malaysia.

“In 2012, Chennai police booked him under the Goonda Act. He came to Bengaluru in 2014, when he was arrested by lndiranagar police, and a case was booked against him.

In Dec 2015, the cybercrime police arrested him in a case of credit card fraud, and this time his wife was also involved. Out on bail, he took to his nefarious ways again,” said Nimbalkar.

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