ATM fraud: Romanians may have been part of larger conspiracy

Kolkata, Aug 5: The two Romanians arrested from New Delhi for their alleged involvement in the recently reported ATM fraud cases in Kolkata might have links to their fellow countrymen held from other cities in similar cases, police said.

Kolkata Police arrested two Romania nationals Opera Obidu Simon (31) and Dumidru Caling (32), from New Delhi's Munirka area on Friday, when they were about to enter an ATM kiosk. It is apparently the same kiosk from where fraudulent withdrawals had been made using fake ATM cards in the past couple of weeks, a Kolkata Police officer said.

The two were brought from New Delhi on transit remand and when produced before a city court, they were remanded to 14 days' police custody. So far we had arrested Nigerians in connection with such fraud cases reported from the city. This is for the first time that Romanians have been arrested for such cases. "We are questioning them to find out whether they have any link to the other Romanians arrested from other cities in the country. These two seemed to be part of a gang involved in such ATM frauds taken place in other parts of the country recently," the IPS officer said.

Preliminary investigations showed that several cards were cloned using skimmers installed in three ATMs in the city. Later money was withdrawn using cloned cards from ATMs in New Delhi. Several documents, cloned debit and credit cards, fake passports were seized from the place where the two were staying in New Delhi, he said.

An initial probe revealed that two had put up at at a rented apartment in the city between March and May. Kolkata Police, so far, has received 76 complaints from customers of two nationalised banks in the city in this connection, the officer said. ATM frauds using cloned cards are on the rise across the country, he said referring to the arrests of Romanians in such cases in cities such as New Delhi, Kerala, Mumbai and Bangalore.