Odishatv Bureau

Rourkela: An interstate gang of ATM looters involved in more than 100 cases were nabbed by the Rourkela police today. Cash worth Rs 4 lakh cash, 3 cars, swiping machines and 95 ATM cards have been seized from their possession, informed police.

The 10- member gang hailing from Bihar and Jharkhand had looted people of more than Rs 1 crore in different online fraud incidents. At least 30 cases have been registered against the gang members in Jharsuguda, Rourkela and Angul districts, reports said.

Acting on a tipoff, police nabbed the gang while it was hatching plan to carry out a robbery in a bank near Hockey Chhak here.

As per the modus operandi, the looters used to apply some kind of glue on switches of the ATM machines leaving them defunct.

Miscreants waiting at the Kiosk would offer to help the card holders and deceivingly swipe the card on their own swiping machines thus transferring the money to a different account.

The looters basically targeted the ATMs located in village and mining areas, informed police. "We are interrogating the accused to elicit more information about the network. There could be more members in the gang," police informed.

During investigation it was revealed that the looters used to visit the ATM counters and somehow take the victims' cards and swipe it in a skimmer machine. Once they swipe the ATM card in the skimmer machine, the entire data of the card were getting copied. Then they observed the cards' pin and later used to transfer money, said Panposh SDPO Padmini Sahoo.

"Awareness among people is necessary to stop such crimes. One should ensure that no other persons enter the ATM counters," she said, adding that a total of Rs 4.2 lakhs have been recovered from the possession of the miscreants.

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