International credit card fraudster gang nabbed by Cyberabad cops
The police seized Rs. 1.11 crore, three cards, four laptops, 23 mobile phones, debit cards, cheque books and other articles from them.
Hyderabad: Seven persons, who were involved allegedly in duping foreign nationals on the pretext of providing technical services related to international credit cards, were arrested by the Cyberabad police on Thursday.
The police seized Rs. 1.11 crore, three cards, four laptops, 23 mobile phones, debit cards, cheque books and other articles from them.
The arrested persons were Naveen Bhutani (41), Mohit (32), Nagaraju Bondada (36), D Sravan Kumar (42), Monu (33), Sadhanala Mukkanti Srinivasa Rao (36) and P Vennelakanti (34).
Cyberabad Police Commissioner M Stephen Raveendra said an investigation into a complaint made by the HDFC Bank credit intelligence and control unit, Hyderabad, about suspicious transactions through point of sale machines, led to the arrest of the seven member gang.
In the complaint, it was stated that transactions amounting to Rs. 64.40 lakh were made within a span of five days by a merchant ‘Healthy Dental Clinic’.
Announcing the arrest of the gang, Stephen Raveendra said the prime suspect Naveen Bhutani, who previously worked in IT companies, set up three calls centres with the help of Monu at Janakapuri in New Delhi, Kaushambi of Ghaziabad and Mohali in Punjab.
“On the pretext of providing technical services, the gang cheated several thousands of international credit card holders of several crores adopting different modus operandi,” he said.
Preliminary investigations revealed the gang cheated credit card holders from Australia, United Kingdom and Singapore.
“The gang contacted customers saying that their mobile phones, computers or laptops were infected by a virus and on pretext of making them pay for obtaining their services, collected their credit card details and duped them,” the Commissioner said.
The police analyzed the data of the customer care numbers and found thousands of incoming calls were made by card holders to the companies indicating the scam could be on a bigger scale involving several crores of rupees.
“Forensic auditors will be roped in to study the transactions of the companies and follow the money trail. A few bank accounts were seized as part of the investigation and it is important for us to know where the money collected by them was used or diverted. It is too early to point out the money laundering angle but we will probe it,” Stephen Raveendra said, adding that the police would also speak to the Reserve Bank of India to know more about the procedure for obtaining payment gateways by various firms.
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