A man who was spotted entering an ATM kiosk several times within a gap of a short time at Mukundapur on the eastern fringes of Kolkata was detained by police on Sunday. It was later found out that he was part of a gang that allegedly cheats people through fraudulent phone calls, convincing people to share their banking details, the police said.
He was arrested in connection with a case related to bank fraud and cheating, the police said. Rajesh Mandal, 32, who is originally from Giridih in Jharkhand, was arrested and six debit cards and Rs 44,000 was seized from him, an officer said.
Mandal had withdrawn the cash from the ATM kiosk in Mukundapur using different debit cards. “He is part of a racket that dupes people over the phone by telling them that their ATM cards are about to be blocked or that they need to update their KYC to save their accounts from being frozen,” said a senior officer of East Jadavpur police station who made the arrest.
After the banking details are obtained the money from the victim’s account is transferred to another account and then further transferred into several bank accounts from where money is withdrawn using a number of ATM cards,” said the officer .
Mandal’s role, the police said, was to withdraw money from these bank accounts. Later some more debit cards, a laptop, mobile phones and documents were seized from his temporary residence in in the city.
Senior officers said hundreds of people are duped by similar rackets that call or send suspicious links through text messages mostly pretending to be bank officials.
“The most common way to dupe people is to pose as a bank representative trying to help the person to save his ATM card or account from being getting blocked. It is most important for people to never entertain such calls and never divulge any of their banking details over phone,” said the officer.
Don’t click on any link in text messages on your phone from sources you do not trust, the officer said.