Credit card fraud: HDFC duped of Rs 35 lakh

New Delhi: ‘They floated fictitious firms, roped in man who conducted credit card verification for the bank’

Eight persons were arrested by the Delhi Crime Branch for their alleged role in carrying out a credit card fraud operation from Prashant Vihar. The accused persons, divided into two gangs, reportedly siphoned off close to Rs 35 lakh from leading private banks, police said.

“Sunder Kumar, Vikas Malik, Jitender Gulati, Raj Karan, Paramjit Singh, Ashok Kumar, Pramod Kumar and Hari Prakash were arrested on Wednesday following a complaint by HDFC bank,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ashok Chand. While Kumar and Malik ran one gang, Gulati, Karan and Singh managed the other. The other three members were common to both gangs.

According to police, the gang led by Sunder Kumar floated a fictitious company in the name of ‘Comviva Technologies’ operating from Prashant Vihar and projected themselves as a firm supplying computer software.

“They then took two Electronic Data Capturing (EDC) machines from HDFC and ICICI Bank. Then on fictitious identities, they forged PAN cards, voter ID cards and Income Tax Returns and applied to the banks for credit cards in the names of fictitious persons” said Chand.

To make sure they could carry out their operations easily, the gang included in their conspiracy Ashok Kumar, an employee of Savvy Management Private Ltd that conducted verifications for HDFC Bank to ensure the genuineness of the credit card applicant.

Following the verification by the company, the bank, believing that the applicant was a genuine person and residing at a verified address, issued the credit cards.

“Since the identity of the person to whom the card was issued as well as the address on which it was issued were fictitious, the accused also involved Pramod Kumar and Hari Prakash, two delivery boys employed with Bluedart Courier Company that delivered the credit cards in this racket” said Chand.

The accused had opened six bank accounts in fictitious names at HDFC Bank and one with ICICI Bank. “After getting these credit cards they would, at regular intervals, swipe them on the EDC machine for different amounts and the money would then get automatically transferred to the bank account of the fraudsters at HDFC Bank” said Chand.

After obtaining the credit cards, the accused got in touch with traders, who for getting 4 to 6 per cent of the transacted amount as commission, swiped these cards in their EDC machines.

“The transacted amount then went to the bank account of the traders. Since there was no actual sale of goods by the traders, they gave the accused 94 to 96 per cent of the transacted amount in cash and retained the remaining with them” said Chand.

The accused had gotten 20 credit cards issued and through these credit cards, they defrauded HDFC Bank of Rs 25 lakh, police said. Apart from this, 18 forged debit cards of various banks, 13 mobile phones, 47 SIM cards and several forged PAN cards were recovered from their possession.

Source: Financial Express