North Delhi: Five Romanian nationals held for ATM skimming

Five Romanian nationals including two women have been arrested for installing a skimming device and camera at an ATM in North Delhi’s Sadar Bazar area. The police have seized over 100 cards from their possession. The accused told the police that they visited India often and searched for crowded market places in order to install the device to clone ATM cards. 

According to the police on January 31 the police were informed that a skimming device with camera was found in the ATM Machine of IDBI Bank of Sadar Bazar Branch. The police scanned the CCTV footages at the ATM machine and found two women with masked faces entering the ATM and installing the skimming device along with camera in the ATM machine. 

In order to catch hold of the accused the police officials directed the bank officials to let the skimming device and camera be at the ATM machine. In the noon, the police officials noticed two women entering the ATM and leaving with the device. A police team stationed at the ATM took them in custody. They were later identified as Costache Irina (27) and Caragica Elisabeta (22), both hail from Romania. During the search of both the ladies the device, camera device which are reinstalled in the ATM machine, 88 H & M Cards with entered pin codes were seized. 

“On the instance of Costache, Dumito Nicolae was arrested, following which two accused identified as Lavtaru Lon and Nistor Llie were arrested as well. Two laptops, 14 cards of H&M (ATM) were recovered from their possession,” said Nupur Prasad, DCP, North.

MODUS OPERANDI

• The accused told the police that they used to visit India frequently and identified the crowded places for installing the skimming machine and camera in the ATMs
   
• They would  install skimming device comprising of a small battery and memory chip in ATM machines
   
• After some time they would again go back to the ATM where they have installed the skimming device and take the device with them
   
• Thereafter, they would  transfer the data of customers captured through skimming device into other plastic cards of H&M having magnetic strip on them and turned them into ATM cards and write down the PIN number over them

HOW TO RECOGNISE ATM DEVICE IS COMPRAMISED

• First, pull on the card reader and near the PIN pad to see if it's loose.
   
• Look for anything out of the ordinary like tape, glue marks, or machine scratches.
   
• Check over the cash machine. Many ATM fraudsters use tactics such as placing false fronts over the card slot to copy, or skim, your details. They may also have positioned a small camera inside the hole in the wall or above the keypad to capture you entering your PIN. If anything looks 'stuck on', it probably is.
   
• If you have suspicions that a machine may have been tampered with, avoid using the machine and report your concerns to the machine's owner immediately. Doing so will reduce the likelihood of other people falling foul of potential fraudsters.
   
• "Shoulder surfer" can peep at your PIN as you enter it. So stand close to the ATM machine and use your body and hand to shield the keypad as you enter the PIN.