Bangalore police bust fake card racket, arrest two suspected LTTE members

A 100-strong international gang of credit card fraudsters, who hacked into bank accounts across the globe through internet from Malaysia and used the details thus obtained to swipe fake credit and debit cards in India, has been busted by the Bangalore police.

Two persons have been arrested by Sampigehalli police and property worth over Rs2 crore recovered from the duo. The remaining gang members, including the kingpin who resides in Malaysia and six local operatives, are yet to be arrested.

The arrested have been identified as Jaikumar alias Shyamvel alias Shyam, 39, a resident of Kengeri Main Road, off Mysore Road and Vaseem Pasha, 25, a resident of JJ Nagar, Mysore Road. Jai Kumar was in the fake credit card business for over two years now.

The gang is believed to have links with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which allegedly received some cash payments from the operatives. “Kumar has admitted to paying some cash to LTTE cadre who used to come to city and collect the amount from him,” the police said. They are also verifying if any payments had been made to the LTTE through bank accounts.

“The mastermind stays in Malaysia. He hacked bank accounts across the globe, including India, through internet and collected their unique identity details including PIN numbers and pass on the same to a contact person in Chennai, who forwarded the same to the gang members who have settled down in various parts of the country,” commissioner of police BG Jyothi Prakash Mirji said.

The Malaysian mastermind had equipped his Indian counterparts with blank credit and debit cards. The gang members in India were also equipped with credit card printing and punching machines. They used the machines to print the unique identity details on the blank credit and debit cards in their possession and swipe them for their purchases.

Jaikumar and his associates in Bangalore had purchased about 5.5-kg gold jewellery, electronic goods and liquor, among other things from the hacked bank accounts.

The police said that Jaikumar claimed ignorance about hacking of accounts but said he was using the PIN numbers sent from the Malayasian mastermind and use the same to swipe fake credit and debit cards. He has also told the police at least 100 members of the gang were operating in various parts of the country.

Rs6k per card
Jaikumar paid his Malaysian handlers Rs6,000 for the security PIN number of every account immaterial of whether the account had any money or not. He confessed that many accounts that had been hacked into had no money, whereas some others had huge deposits.

The Bangalore gangster even had a reader machine, which helped him keep track of the money left in the account and the credit limit. He then asked his associates to swipe cards at huge outlets in the city. The China-made printing machinery had been purchased from Kolkata.

The Bangalore arm of the racket had employed 51 fake credit and debit cards to purchase material worth Rs2 crore.

The police also recovered from the Bangalore operatives about 500 fake credit and debit cards. some of them empty and some of them ready to use.

A punching machine, a reader machine, a laminator, gold jewellery, silver articles, bank logos and laptops were also recovered. The Bangalore gang had faked HSBC, Citibank, HDFC and Axis Bank credit and debit credit cards.

The police, who are yet to talk to the victims whose accounts have been hacked, have kept the identities of the Malaysian kingpin and the Chennai handler a secret.

A police team has been constituted to arrest the six absconding local accomplices of Jaikumar.

Modus operandi
The mastermind hacks into bank accounts across the globe, including in India, through internet and collects all unique identity details of the account holders like their credit and debit cards’ PIN and CVV numbers.

He forwards all the unique identity details of the individual bank accounts to a contact person in Chennai, who forwards the same to the gang members in various Indian cities. The kingpin provides blank credit/debit cards to the Indian gangsters, who are also equipped with fake credit card printing, punching and reading machines.

The Indian gang members use the printing and punching machines to fill up the blank credit/debit cards and their magnetic strips with the unique identity details including the PIN and CVV numbers.

The Indian gangsters know the balance details and credit limits of the account holders and then swipe the cards at jewellery shops and malls to make purchases.