Bangalore, Sept 30: Eminent industrialist Kumaramangalam Birla's Standard Chartered Platinum Credit Card was cloned by fraudsters, who went on a six-day shopping spree from September 15 to 20 in Bangalore shopping malls, Bangalore Mirror reported. Two persons were arrested by Bangalore police along with 205 cloned cards.
The misuse took place between September 15 and 20.Nearly 2.9 lakh was splurged on purchases of jewellery and electronic gadgets.During the period, the industrialist was in Mumbai, and had the original credit card with him Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the $35-billion Aditya Birla Group never visited Bangalore during this period.
The report said, the fraudsters cloned the Standard Chartered Platinum credit card of the high-profile industrialist and went on a six-day shopping spree from September 15 to 20 in malls across the city.They splurged Rs 2.86 lakh on jewellery and electronic gadgets.All this while,Birla was in Mumbai and the original credit card was with him.
A complaint was lodged at the Worli police station,Mumbai,September 24 by an executive of the Aditya Birla Group.The fraud came to light on September 23,when the bank sent a statement to Birla's office detailing the credit card transactions made in Bangalore.One of the finance wing executives was the first to detect the anomaly.
How could our boss go on a shopping spree in Bangalore when he has been in Mumbai, he asked.Cross-checking with Birla,his staff found that the original credit card had been with him throughout.
The Worli police registered an FIR (crime number 298/11) under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code and other provisions of the Information Technology Act.Inspector Sudhir Mahadik,who confirmed receipt of the complaint on behalf of Birla,told Bangalore Mirror,Preliminary investigations have revealed that fraudsters have used Birlas credit card for shopping in Bangalore.We have formed a special team to probe the matter,and have alerted our counterparts in Bangalore.
According to the police,the fraudsters swiped Birlas card around 10 times in six days.G K Tulsiyani,a representative of the Birla Group,said,Kumar Mangalam Birla had not been to Bangalore during the time the purchases using his card were made.It seems his card has been cloned as he has the original card with him.The cops are probing the matter.
In similar cases reported a couple of months ago, the Bangalore Police arrested two people who went on a shopping spree at the UB City mall with some cloned credit cards.
The tip-off had come after Crime Branch sleuths of the Mumbai Police arrested Suhail,Afsar and Nadeem,both Bangalore residents,and Bhaskar, from Kalyan near Mumbai,on charges of cloning credit cards and allegedly using them for shopping. Moving into action,the Bangalore Police arrested Jayakumar Samuel of Bangalore and Harish Steven of Mysore,recovering 205 cloned cards from them.
The Mumbai Police too had recovered 77 fake credit cards.CCTV grabs had showed the culprits,led by Suhail, visiting several showrooms of leading mercantile brands at UB City,Indiranagar,Brigade Road,buying goods worth more than Rs 25 lakh.
How a Card Is Cloned?Skimming, popularly called credit card cloning, simply means copying details from your original credit card onto a bogus card.
The fake card is then used by the fraudster to splurge.Made-in-China data readers are used to copy your cards.When you hand over your credit card during a transaction, the other person may swipe it on the data reader which will copy the data from your card.This data is stored in the reader which is then transferred into a blank or unused card.The clone of your credit card is now ready.
Data copied from your card includes the credit card number,expiry date and the name on the credit card.Only your address is safe from copying.You will realise of the theft only when the duplicate card is used for transaction,and you get an intimation from the bank or when the bill is generated.The only way to prevent cloning of your card is to be sure every time you hand the card for swiping that it is not misused on a data reader.
Credit cards with smart chips which encrypt information on your card's magnetic strip will also prevent copying of data.Make sure that when your card is being swiped for a second time,it is only because the first transaction was cancelled.Do not save credit card details in online transactions.Data readers can also be fitted into regular card readers.Make sure to shop with trusted traders.
