CHENNAI: A 27-year-old man from Andhra Pradesh was arrested for allegedly cheating over 50 people out of more than Rs 20 lakh by swapping their ATM cards with fake ones.
The Anna Square crime wing police recovered 79 ATM cards and a mobile phone from his possession.
The accused, identified as Sidathala Sunil, reportedly targeted vulnerable individuals, including the elderly and visually impaired.
One such victim was M Pandian, a 61-year-old visually impaired man from Madurai. On March 31, while Pandian was using an ATM on the University of Madras campus, a stranger offered to help him.
The suspect took Pandian's card and PIN, inserted it into the machine, but then claimed the ATM had no cash and returned the card.
However, without Pandian’s knowledge, he had secretly swapped his real card with a fake one.
After Pandian left, Sunil used the original card at a nearby ATM to withdraw Rs 23,500. Pandian realised the fraud only when he received a bank alert on his mobile phone and immediately filed a complaint with the Anna Square police.
Investigators reviewed CCTV footage and tracked down Sunil, who was working at a petrol station in Andhra Pradesh, who had come to Chennai the previous week.
After stealing the money from Pandian, he deposited Rs 20,000 into a relative's bank account.
The police said Sunil would collect ATM cards left behind by customers at various kiosks and use them for his swapping fraud to steal money from visually impaired and elderly people across multiple states. He was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.