Romanians held in ATM fraud cases

Kolkata: Two Romanians were arrested by a special investigation team of the Kolkata police from New Delhi in connection with an online bank fraud scam in which dozens of ATM cards of customers of different banks were allegedly cloned using electronic devices at ATM outlets for illegal withdrawal of money from their accounts across the city in the past one week.

The accused duo — Dumidru Caling (32) and Opera Obidu Simon (31) — was caught from near an ATM in South Delhi on Friday. Brought to Kol-kata on Saturday, they were produced at Ban-kshall court, which rema-nded them in two weeks'  custody. Twenty-six cloned ATM cards were recovered from them.

Interrogating the accused, the investigators learnt that data of nearly 300 customers of a PSU bank — Canara Bank — was stolen for illegal transactions from their accounts. They suspect that more Rominans' role in what appeared to be a racket. The name of a retired Army officer, in rank of a colonel, who was arrested for a similar online bank fraud and has been lodged in the judicial custody at Tihar Jail has also cropped up during the probe. The Kolkata police is going to get in touch with the prison authorities to collect his details.