Two Bihar men held for ATM card swapping fraud in Chennai; 55 cards seized from them

CHENNAI: City Police on Friday arrested two men from Bihar for cheating a 53-year-old man of Rs 20,000 through an ATM card swap fraud outside a kiosk in New Washermanpet. Police arrested the duo and found them to be in possession of 55 ATM cards.

The arrested men were identified as Buhari Kumar (30) and Chhorelal Paswan (37), who live at a rented house in Mannadi and work as casual labourers. Outside their working hours, the duo would roam around the city and target gullible victims outside ATM kiosks under the pretext of helping them.

They were arrested based on a complaint from L Krishnan (53) of Tondiarpet, a plastic trader. On Thursday, Krishnan went to the SBI ATM kiosk on Cross Road in New Washermanpet to withdraw money. As Krishnan found it difficult to operate the machine, the accused who were waiting outside offered to help him. They acted as if they were withdrawing money and told Krishnan that the ATM was out of funds and handed back the card to him.

However, within few minutes, Krishnan received text messages from his bank about two transactions of Rs 10,000 each, after which he realised that the accused had swapped his ATM card with a bogus card.

Krishnan then blocked his ATM card and filed a complaint with the New Washermanpet Police who arrested the duo. Investigations revealed that they were involved in a similar crime with a woman in Tiruvottiyur two months ago.

Later, the arrested duo was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody. Further investigations are under way to find if others are part of the network.