Becarefull with Credit Cards

Use Credit Cards CAREFULLY
Always keep your CREDIT CARD in sight, when you give it for
swiping......



The accused (left) used a card-reader (right) to transfer the data
on to a PC for making a duplicate credit card

They Would Make Duplicates Of Credit Cards Used By Customers At A Juhu
Hotel
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: The next time you decide to use your credit card on a shopping
trip, think again. The Mumbai police have busted a hitech credit card
fraud which they believe is the crime of the future.

Four gadget-savvy youngsters from Andheri, two of them software
engineers, got together to earn a quick buck and ended up ripping off
over Rs 3 lakh of citizens' money. The foursome were arrested by the
Juhu police on Tuesday. Interestingly, one of the boys was all set to
leave for the United State s for a job in a wellplaced computer firm.
According to the police, the mastermind of the gang is 19-year-old Leo
Paul. A second-year engineering student at a Bandra college, Paul had
read about a magnetic card-reading device which could store data once
you swipe a card through it. Data from at least 12 such  cards could be
stored at a time. Paul realised that if credit cards were swiped though
the machine, the personal data of a customer stored on it could be
accessed. He then teamed with Akash Kamble, a 19-year-old Lokhandwala
resident, and ordered the card-reader from USA , using the internet,
since it's not available in India .

"The boys befriended a waiter at Kings International hotel at Juhu to
take their plan ahead. Every time someone ate a meal in the hotel and
paid by credit card, the waiter would discreetly swipe it  through the
magnetic card-reader, which is no more than 6-inches  long and can be
stored in the pocket,'' said investigating officer
Ramesh Nangare.

Once the waiter was done, he would hand over the device to Paul  who
would download the data from the cards on to Kamble's personal
computer. The duo would then feed the data into blank cards, available
in the grey market. The cards were now ready to be used in
shopping malls and theatres, or to withdraw money from an ATM.

Senior inspector Pradeep Shinde said that the boys forged  information
from more than 22 cards in this manner. The fraud came  to light after
officials from HSBC bank complained to the police.  The cops quizzed
customers whose cards had been duplicated and  discovered they had all
visited Hotel Kings International and paid by credit card.
Investigators
then caught the waiter who led them to the four youngsters. Paul,
Kamble
and the two other collegians  identified as Manoj Chauhan (24) and
Mahesh Valani (20), have been  remanded to police custody.

NEW-AGE CRIME

A portable magnetic cardreader can store data from around a dozen cards
tha t have been swiped through it; made in China, the device was bought
on the net for  Rs 18,000.

The card-reader is connected to a computer and the entire data is
transferred there.

The data is then stored in blank cards available in the grey market.

These duplicate cards can now be used to buy a fortune and also
withdraw
money from ATMs.