Card cloning gang found electronics engineer on ICQ

Police with the items seized from the gang

A 31-year-old electronics engineer from Coimbatore has emerged as the key accused - he prepared card readers, a skimmer, an ATM swipe cabinet and mini-data collectors - in the card cloning gang arrested on October 12. Officials said Ramesh Chandran was introduced to the gang on ICQ (an app similar to WhatsApp) where criminals have groups.

He has told the police that he purchased the items online and made modifications as per the client's requirement. Chandran charged R9,000 per machine and is suspected to have supplied them to card cloning gangs in India. He did so well that he purchased an SUV worth Rs 16 lakh.

Ramesh Chandran who was held in Coimbatore

The gang was busted by the property cell of the Mumbai Crime Branch on October 12. A team led by officers Sunil Bajare, Santosh Gaikar and Laxmikant Salunke arrested him from Tamil Nadu.

Entry into card cloning
Chandran is from a well-to-do family. He wound up his herbal products business, and sold his two biometric machines online for Rs 14,000. He then got orders for such machines. "He simply bought them online and sold them at a profit," a senior official said. He then joined ICQ where gangs contacted him.

Police have found that the gang used petrol pump staff to collect data from swiped cards. They seized 10 mobile phones, 4 laptops, 97 cards, 2 card readers, 1 point of sale skimmer, 1 ATM swipe cabinet and 4 mini-data collectors from the gang.

They found they have the data of over 700 people, cheated at least 70 and have 40-50 cases in the city against them.Deputy commissioner of police Dilip Sawant said, "Chandran prepared machines which read data from bank cards for the gang."

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