Crime branch officers have busted a gang involving two Nigerians and a local who replicated debit and ATM cards of foreigners and used them in the city to make purchases.
Police said that acting on a tip-off, they arrested Faizy Altaf Raza, 29, an Ulhasnagar resident; Babalola Qasim, 41, a Malwani resident; and Shreyanj Kothadia, 31, a Bhayander resident on Thursday near R-City Mall at Ghatkopar (W).
Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of police, said: “Felly Umar, their associate in Lagos, Nigeria, used to provide the gang the details of various debit card holders abroad. The gang then used to make bogus debit and ATM cards by storing the data provided by Umar on blank cards.” He said the gang also replicated PAN cards of Indians.
Maria said the police recovered from them 76 debit and ATM cards, 18 PAN cards, 700 blank cards, some fake driving licences, a replicator (reads data on cards), a digital camera, a lamination machine, two laptops and a printer. The recovery was made from a guesthouse in Mira Road where the gang used to make these bogus cards.
GT Padwal, senior inspector of the Ghatkopar unit of crime branch, said the three have admitted they had been running the racket for the past four months and have duped several foreigners to the tune of Rs15 lakh.
Maria said: “The debit and ATM cards carried Indian names but the data on them belonged to foreigners. Babalola was in touch with Umar to get details, which were then passed on to Faizy, a computer expert. Then they created bogus cards, which they used to make purchases and pay bills at expensive hotels.”
The trio was produced before a local court and was remanded in police custody till October 1. Incidentally, Faizy and Shreyanj have two cases each of credit card fraud against them.
