NT NETWORK
PANAJI
It has come to light that a new modus operandi is being followed by some fraudsters – they come to the doorstep with a gift from an ‘unknown sender’, and then insist on a token payment, to be made through debit/credit card and steal the card data using a skimmer.
Such incidents have been reported in various parts of the country, the Goa cyber crime police have said referring to the inputs they have received from police in those regions.
So far, no such incidents have been reported in the state but looking at the trend, Goa cyber crime police have cautioned the public to be careful, and not to make payments using a card towards a gift sent by some ‘unknown person’ or a firm.
The police are also of the opinion that utmost care must be taken while making payments using a debit or credit card.
Referring to the modus operandi, a senior police officer said that a neatly dressed man claiming to be from a courier firm approaches gullible people with a gift especially a liquor bottle sent by a person or a firm unknown to them.
The fraudsters tell the victims that only a token amount of Rs 50 or Rs 100 is charged and it has to be paid using a debit or credit card.
Fraudsters carry a point of sale (POS) machine which is actually a card skimmer, the police said adding the fraudsters claim that the token amount is to be paid using a card in order to bring it on record digitally that the gift has been delivered to the designated person and that he or she is not a minor.
The fraudsters don’t accept the token money in cash, the officer informed.
Being a token sum, a victim does not mind paying for the gift and unsuspectingly pays using card, said the officer adding that the machine (POS) copies the card data which is then used by fraudsters to siphon off the money from the victim’s bank account.
Last year, the Goa cyber crime police had registered four FIRs in two different frauds pertaining to card skimming.
In January and February, three FIRs were registered against unknown accused in connection with ATM card skimming cases.
The police had released photographs and videos of the two suspects, who appeared to be foreign nationals. These accused were seen installing a wireless CCTV camera at an ATM booth to capture the passwords.
According to the police, the two had also fitted a skimmer device to the card reader of an ATM machine to copy data from the magnetic stripe of the cards.
Card data of several persons was stolen and amount in lakhs was siphoned off. The accused are yet to be traced.
The fourth FIR was registered in December. The police had arrested Ramesh Chauhan (46), Alihusain (40) and Abhishek Singh (29) in Calangute.
Alihusain and Singh had come from Delhi with two debit/credit card skimmers which looked similar to that of point of sale (POS) machines.
One skimmer was installed at an outlet in Anjuna while the accused were looking for another outlet to install the other skimmer.