Pramesh S Jain
T
he Subramanyapura police on tuesday arrested two men from Bihar who used to replace ATM cards from the people coming to ATM and cheat them.
The accused have been identified as Vivek Kumar,28 and his associate chunilal Kumar,24,from east Champaran,Bihar.
The police have recovered 37 ATM cards of different banks and cash Rs.7,500 from them.
The accused used to move around the ATMs targeting gullible people coming to the ATM for cash transactions.
The duo on the pretext of offering help would replace the card and escape with the genuine card along with the PIN number.
Using this MO,the accused had took away the ATM card from a man who had come to change the PIN at the ATM on Uttarahalli main road on July 31 this year .
The accused soon went to another ATM and started withdrawing a total of Rs.75,000.The victim who got transaction alerts on his mobile phone realized that he had been cheated and rushed to the bank and complained.The bank officials managed to block the transaction before alerting the police.
Based on the complaint,a team of police led by Inspector MS Raju,analysed CCTV footage and kept a watch on the ATMs before zeroing in on the accused.
The police are now investigating further to ascertain their criminal background.
In another incident,the electronic city police arrested another who had cheated a man with Rs.61,500 after replacing his ATM card in Begur last month.
The victim had gone to ATM to withdraw cash on Begur main road when the accused on the pretext of help replaced the card.
The victim without realizing went home and did not even check that a total amount of Rs.61,500 withdrawal.
After reaching his home town,the victim realized the fraud and later filed a complaint with the police.The police track down the accused and recovered 32 ATM cards and cash Rs.4,000 from him.
The police have advised people to be careful while interacting with the strangers at the ATM and banks .
