Cybercriminals allegedly siphoned off Rs 6.84 lakh from the bank account of a former MLA living in Arera Colony, Bhopal, by cloning his ATM card.
According to a preliminary probe by the Cyber-crime Branch, the cloning was carried out using skimming equipment installed at an ATM booth of a nationalised bank in Arera Colony, according to a TOI report. The fraud came to light on May 5 when the former MLA received a notification showing a remaining balance of only Rs 92 in his account.
He contacted the bank manager and was informed that the entire amount in his account had been withdrawn. Investigations revealed that 54 unauthorised transactions were made from his account between February and May this year. Surprisingly, the account holder did not receive any transaction alert messages during this period.
The Cyber-crime Branch found that a cloning device had been covertly installed at the ATM booth, allowing fraudsters to replicate the former legislator’s card and use it to make multiple fraudulent withdrawals and purchases. Among the transactions was a payment of over Rs 52,000 made at a showroom in MP Nagar using the cloned card.