GUWAHATI, Sept 6 - Two cyber criminals, who rigged ATMs in the city with card skimming tools and hidden camera, were arrested by police yesterday from Mumbai. Both are nationals of Turkey.
A joint team of Assam Police and Mumbai Police arrested the duo from Colaba area. They have been identified as Ilgi Emrah and Abdul Habib Yurgan.
In the recent past, several such criminals have been arrested in Turkey. Last year, Istanbul Police busted a criminal gang specialised in cloning credit cards of restaurant customers through which the gang has so far made 3 million Turkish Liras ($730,000).
�The accused will be brought to Guwahati tomorrow or day after,� a police official said. Sources said there could be more people involved in the crime but police were tightlipped for the sake of the investigation. As many as 38 cases of ATMs being rigged were reported from across the city. The city crime branch said 14 such cases were reported in Paltanbazar, six in Hatigaon and 18 in Dispur.
Using the two devices � one fixed to the keyboard and another in the card reader � the fraudsters steal card details and ATM numbers. Two pairs of such devices were seized by police from two ATMs in the city. Customers have reported loss of different amounts from their accounts.
Skimming fraud is not uncommon in India. The skimmers capture the information stored on the magnetic strip of an ATM card. A camera installed somewhere above the keypad captures the ATM PIN as the user enters it in an ATM or at a shop. These details are then used to clone cards to withdraw money from other ATMs or do online shopping.
