Two foreigners held for ATM card-cloning fraud worth crores, hawala links unearthed: Noida Police

Police have arrested two foreign nationals who were involved in ATM card cloning to dupe people of "crores" of rupees and also unearthed their links with hawala operators in the National Capital Region.

Noida (UP):The Noida Police on Wednesday said it has arrested two foreign nationals involved in ATM card cloning to dupe people of "crores" of rupees and also unearthed their links with hawala operators in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The accused have been identified as Omon Benson, who hails from Nigeria, and Johnson Usaro, a native of Kenya, and both of them were currently staying in Greater Noida, the police said.

According to officials, Benson and Usaro have been active in Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Delhi, Gurgaon and Faridabad for the last 10 years during which they cloned several cards and illegally withdrew money from ATMs.

"The duo was held by the Cyber Cell, which recovered 96 ATM cards, two card-cloning modules, two laptops, seven mobile phones, two pin-hole cameras, 17 sheets of debit card data, Rs 10,000 cash, among others, from them," a police spokesperson said.

Additional Deputy Commissioner, Cyber Cell, Ankur Aggarwal, said 94 FIRs of fraudulent withdrawal from ATMs lodged in Gautam Buddh Nagar district are linked to the duo.

"They used to spend some money and keep some for their expenses. Rest of the money was sent by them to their native countries with the help of Nigerian hawala traders operating in Delhi-NCR," Aggarwal said.

PTI Report