IT park eateries’ staff siphon off cash after skimming cards, arrested

Following several complaints from techies of a private firm in Perungudi that money vanished from their bank accounts mysteriously, the anti-bank fraud wing of the Central Crime Branch probed the cases.

During the investigation, the police team led by inspector Meenapriya found that all the complainants had used their debit or credit cards in a juice shop named Juice It and an eatery named Shaan-e-Punjab in the cafeteria inside the IT park.

The officials then intensified the probe and found that the staff of both the shops cheated their customers. “The shops don’t accept cash and customers can pay only using cards. The staff misused it and stole the card data using skimmers. The main accused, Rahul Singh and Kundan Singh, were working in the Shaan-e-Punjab while the rest worked in the juice shop,” police said.

Whenever the duo was in-charge of the front desk, customers’ cards would be skimmed as they were in possession of the skimmer device, they added. When the other accused swiped the cards in the skimmer device, the two would note down the PIN numbers. 

Meanwhile, another accused Vipin Kumar made duplicate cards using the stolen data. Using the fake cards, they withdrew money from ATMs in Kolkata and Patna to the tune of Rs 10 lakh. The shop owner did not have a clue about it, said an officer.

The other accused have been identified as Suresh Kumar, Rahul Kumar, Sudhir, Pikash Kumar, Kundan Kumar and Rambir Kumar.

A laptop, a skimmer device, 12 mobile phones, fake debit cards, five point of sale (PoS) machines and Rs 1.48 lakh have been seized from them. All were remanded in judicial custody. “The accused were tutored about this cheating method in Bihar. As we acted swiftly, the loss was contained to Rs 10 lakh,” added the officer.