The Noida Police on Monday said they have arrested four illiterate men for duping people in Delhi NCR by withdrawing money from their bank accounts after changing their ATM cards using tricks they learnt from YouTube. One of the chief motives for their crime was to fulfil their girlfriends’ demands, a police official said.
The police also seized 70 ATM cards of various banks and two smartphones bought recently from the ill-gotten money from them, a senior officer said.
Noida Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajesh S said the four accused roamed around in an auto-rickshaw and targeted ATMs having no security guards.
“They would stand at ATM kiosks and wait for gullible targets, mostly elderly people or those not very conversant in using ATMs. On the pretext of helping them, they would see their passwords and then change their ATM cards with fake ones that they carried,” he told reporters.
“The gang members told police they have been active for more than a year now and primarily operated in Delhi and Ghaziabad. The Ghaziabad police have been informed about the arrest of these gang members and they would soon be questioning the four accused,” DCP Rajesh said.
He said the gang members have been arrested by a team of Noida Sector 24 police station led by SHO Prabhat Dixit.
The matter came to light after an elderly man recently approached the police alleging his ATM card was stolen and money was withdrawn from his bank account using it, the officer said.
The victim also suspected these people behind the fraud as he had met them at an ATM kiosk in Sector 11 recently after which he had started receiving notifications of withdrawals on his registered mobile phone, the DCP said.
“One of the notifications said two mobile phones were purchased from a mobile shop. Tracking this notification, the police reached the particular shop, checked its CCTV footage and developed some clues about the culprits,” he said.
Those held have been identified as Ranjeet Sahni, 29, Prakash Chauhan, 26, Jitendra Sahni, 31, and Arun Singh, 42.
Ranjeet, Jitendra and Arun hail from Bihar and live in Ghaziabad while Prakash belongs to Madhya Pradesh and stays in Noida, the police said.
DCP Rajesh said all four accused are illiterate but had learnt about duping people by changing ATM cards through YouTube videos.
An FIR has been lodged at Sector 24 police station and further proceedings are being carried out, the police added.
