Four men found visiting two ATMs in Dhakuria and Garfa several times in the last 24 hours were detained based on suspicion and later arrested for being part of a racket that targets the elderly who go to ATMs to withdraw money.
Police said the racketeers spy on elderly people’s ATM PINs and then get hold of their ATM cards by replacing them with old and stolen cards.
Several such cases have been reported in the city where strangers have pretended to help elderly Calcuttans in ATM kiosks and then duped them by replacing their cards with old ATM cards stolen from someone else.
The police identified them as Debnandan Kumar, Rakesh Singh and Nitesh Kumar from Gaya, Bihar, and Naveen Kumar from Haryana.
A senior officer said they have had multiple meetings with banks that have ATM kiosks in their jurisdiction and requested them to alert the police if the same people were seen visiting a particular ATM regularly.
“On Friday, we received information from Garfa. Our team went and three men were detained from the spot. They had been spotted loitering around or entering an ATM kiosk several times. They were taken to the police station and searched. We found Rs 60,000 and more than 10 ATM cards on them, which they could not explain,” said an officer.
On further interrogation, the police said they found that the men were from Gaya and had come to Calcutta to carry out ATM frauds.
The police received a similar alert on Saturday about a man loitering around an ATM kiosk in Dhakuria. Naveen Kumar was detained and later arrested with 11 ATM cards.
Their modus operandi was to pickpocket people’s ATM cards and then dupe elderly citizens in ATM kiosks on the pretext of helping them, an officer said.
“We are requesting everyone to never seek help from any stranger inside an ATM Kiosk. If there is a problem while withdrawing money, it is always advisable to consult only a family member but never take help from a stranger, however friendly he or she appears to be,” said deputy commissioner (south suburban) Rashid Munir Khan.