The Hindu

• The accused made 123 fake credit cards of 35 banks
• Some waiters or cashiers copied the credit card data

BANGALORE, Jun 24: A fake credit card racket, involving data thieves, electronics professionals, non-resident Indians (NRIs) and possibly waiters and cashiers at hotels and malls, has been unearthed by the Bangalore police.

The scam is part of an international racket where fake credit cards were created by reproducing the data stolen from genuine credit cards of several NRIs through hi-tech gadgets. A team led by Chandra Layout Inspector B. Jagannath Rai arrested three men from Bangalore, who, with the help of their accomplices abroad, had created 123 fake credit cards of 35 banks.The police recovered electronic goods worth Rs. 7 lakh which the accused had purchased allegedly using the fake credit cards.Commissioner of Police Neelam Achuta Rao told presspersons on Friday that the man who supplied the purloined credit card data to the arrested persons is abroad, probably in the U.S. When customers swiped their credit cards at malls or restaurants, some waiters or cashiers recruited by the racketeers copied the card data details from the magnetic strip using a hand-held device. The stolen data was then transferred to white plastic cards with magnetic strips, the police said.

During interrogation, the accused reportedly said that their accomplices in the U.S. had sent them the data-encoded white plastic cards. Using the state-of-the-art magnetic card reader and writer equipment, the accused here transferred the data to discarded credit cards. Before transferring the information, they erased the magnetic strip data of the discarded cards.

Once the new data was transferred to them, the discarded credit cards got activated. The accused then used the forged cards without tampering with the original credit card number and name of the holder embossed on it. When the fake card was swiped, the charge slip generated had the number and name of the holder of the discarded credit card. As there was insurance cover for the credit cards, the insurance companies compensated the banks, Mr. Sharathchandra said.

Investigation has revealed that some NRIs had given their credit cards to the accused and falsely informed the bank officials abroad that they had lost the cards. Before the banks deactivated the cards, the accused had made purchases. The card holders abroad got a commission of about 20 per cent from the accused, he said.

The arrested were identified as Nagaraj , a film financier , of Hanumanthanagar; Sriganthapal, a graduate in electronics engineering, from Tiruchi , and Sai Prasad, a B.Com graduate, of Chennai.